Dr Laia Josa-Culleré is a medicinal chemist and leads the Drug Discovery and Medicinal Chemistry research group at IQAC. She graduated in Chemistry from the University of Barcelona and obtained a research master’s degree with Finian J. Leeper at the University of Cambridge, working on new click reporters for the bioorthogonal labelling of glycans in cancer cells.

In 2016, she obtained her PhD from the University of Oxford, working with Mark G. Moloney on the preparation of natural product derivatives with antibacterial and anticancer properties. She subsequently joined the spin-off company OxStem, working with Angela J. Russell, where she led drug discovery projects to identify new small molecules capable of differentiating acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) cells.

In 2019, she returned to Barcelona thanks to a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship and subsequently a Juan de la Cierva grant. She joined the MCS group led by Amadeu Llebaria at IQAC, where she worked on photopharmacology approaches for oncology.

In 2025, Dr Josa-Culleré received an ERC Starting Grant and a Ramón y Cajal contract, and established the Drug Discovery and Medicinal Chemistry research group at IQAC. The group focuses on the development of innovative drugs for oncology.