About Juana
Juana Díez earned 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 has led 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, they remain a major threat to humanity, as shown 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, is still largely unknown.
2. Viral protein production – Viral replication needs efficient protein synthesis, yet many viral genomes are enriched in suboptimal codons, linked to reduced protein output. Our work shows that some viruses reprogram cellular codon optimality to boost viral protein expression. Whether this strategy is widespread, and essential for the adaptation of new viruses to humans, remains unresolved.