Laura Lechuga

Key takeaways

Laura Lechuga belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Laura Lechuga to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Laura Lechuga from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Laura M. Lechuga Gómez (Seville, 1962) is a Spanish scientist who is a biosensor researcher and full professor. She leads the Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Application Group at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2). She was director of the Department of Sensors and Biosensors of the IMM-CNM at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). She has written more than 250 highly consulted scientific publications and she is the owner of 8 families of Patents – several has been transferred to the industry through the spin-off companies SENSIA, S.L. and BIOD, S.L.-. She has been part of almost 85 Research projects, most of then international ones, and she is an active scientific promoter. During the COVID-19 pandemic Lechuga developed a simple, low-cost and fast optical biosensor to detect COVID-19.

Early life and education She was born in Seville, Andalusia, in 1962. Whilst she was at high school she became interested in molecular biology. She studied chemistry at university, Universidad de Cádiz (Andalusia), where she was inspired to pursue a career in research. Lechuga completed her doctoral research at the Complutense University of Madrid. After earning her PhD in 1992, Lechuga was appointed as a postdoctoral researcher at the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology.

Research and career When Lechuga returned to Spain in 1995, she was appointed head of the biosensor group at the Microelectronics National Center from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). In 2008 she move to the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) in Barcelona. In 2012 was appointed an adjunct professor at the University of Tromsø, and in 2013 a visiting professor at the University of Campinas. Lechuga develops silicon based biosensors which can be integrated into a lab-on-a-chip platform. She has developed different types of sensors, including; photonic Biosensors, Mach–Zehnder interferometers, opto-nano-mechanical sensors and magnetoplasmonic sensors. She looks to apply these sensors in clinical settings, for the diagnosis of cancer and other diseases, as well as environmental monitoring. In 2018 she demonstrated an interferometry-based point-of-care device for the fast and sensitive quantification of Escherichia coli. The device contained microarrays printed onto high performance nanoplasmonic substrates, and could even be used by non-expert personnel. During the COVID-19 pandemic Lechuga developed a simple, low-cost and fast COVID-19 testing system. Her proposal came out of a rapid grant scheme that the European Commission established at the end of January 2020 in an effort to tackle the emerging pandemic. Lechuga developed the idea within ten days, making use of her experience building optical biosensors. The test is based on a nanoscale optical sensor and includes a receptor protein (antibody) that is capable of detecting the coronavirus. The sensor itself consists of a waveguide interferometer. It makes use of sample of saliva or sputum to detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2. If the saliva contains SARS-CoV-2, it will bind to the antibodies, and, in turn, change the transmission of a beam of light passing through the optical sensor. Once the light has been analysed the resulted will be transmitted to a smart phone or tablet, in a process that takes less than 30 minutes. Complementary DNA probes will identify the viral RNA without the need for Polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Awards and honours 2014 Elected a Fellow of The Optical Society 2016 Real Sociedad Española de Física (RSEF) – BBVA Physics, Innovation and Technology Award 2017 Inducted into AcademiaNet: The Portal to Excellent Women Academics

Selected publications Sepúlveda, Borja; Angelomé, Paula C.; Lechuga, Laura M.; Liz-Marzán, Luis M. (2009). "LSPR-based nanobiosensors". Nano Today. 4 (3): 244–251. doi:10.1016/j.nantod.2009.04.001. ISSN 1748-0132. Estevez, M.C.; Alvarez, M.; Lechuga, L.M. (26 September 2011). "Integrated optical devices for lab-on-a-chip biosensing applications". Laser & Photonics Reviews. 6 (4): 463–487. doi:10.1002/lpor.201100025. hdl:10261/51022. ISSN 1863-8880. S2CID 123203743. Prieto, F; Sepúlveda, B; Calle, A; Llobera, A; Domínguez, C; Abad, A; Montoya, A; Lechuga, L M (2 July 2003). "An integrated optical interferometric nanodevice based on silicon technology for biosensor applications". Nanotechnology. 14 (8): 907–912. Bibcode:2003Nanot..14..907P. doi:10.1088/0957-4484/14/8/312. ISSN 0957-4484. S2CID 137122027. Lechuga, Laura (2021). Una científica saltando vallas. Plataforma Editorial. ISBN 978-84-18582-82-0.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Laura Lechuga

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Laura Lechuga claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Laura Lechuga before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Laura Lechuga ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Laura Lechuga

In research: Laura Lechuga appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Laura Lechuga in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Laura Lechuga is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Complutense University of Madrid alumni, Living people, Spanish chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Laura Lechuga outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Laura Lechuga in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Laura Lechuga means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Laura Lechuga out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Laura Lechuga in simple terms?

Laura M. Lechuga Gómez (Seville, 1962) is a Spanish scientist who is a biosensor researcher and full professor.

Why does Laura Lechuga matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Laura Lechuga?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Laura Lechuga.