About Juana
Juana Díez obtained her PhD at the Center for Molecular Biology (Madrid) and completed her postdoctoral training at the Institute of Virology in Madison (USA). Since 2001, she leads the Molecular Virology Group at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), where she is Professor of Microbiology and, since 2024, coordinator of the Biology of Disease program. Her work has been recognized with awards such as the ICREA Academia for research excellence and the Technology Transfer Award from UPF. Her international lab is supported by both national and European funding sources.
Research
Despite their simplicity, viruses remain a major threat to humanity, as highlighted by emerging mosquito-borne viruses and SARS-CoV-2. Our group addresses two key questions:
1. Cross-species adaptation. While most viruses are host-specific, mosquito-borne viruses replicate efficiently in both vertebrates and mosquitoes, lineages separated by ~700 million years of evolution. How they exploit such distinct cellular machineries, and how this dual lifestyle shapes viral genome evolution, remains largely unknown.
2. Viral protein production. Efficient viral protein synthesis is essential for viral replication and propagation. However, many viral genomes are enriched in suboptimal codons, which are typically associated with reduced translation efficiency. Our lab studies how viruses overcome this constraint by reprogramming host translation through tRNA modifications, thereby enhancing viral protein expression.