Tzanko Tzanov is a chemical engineer with a large internationally acquired experience in biochemical functionalization of (bio)polymers for industrial and biomedical applications, nano(bio)technology, enzymatic synthesis, polymerization, and coating. He is author of more than 100 peer review articles, 14 book chapters and inventor of 10 granted patents. Two of these patents have been licensed to Textile Alberto de Sousa, S.A (Portugal) and Best Wool Carpets BV (The Netherlands), respectively. According to Google Scholar Citations, he is ranked 3415 among the top 91000 profiles of Spanish researchers from any research field worldwide.
He joined the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in 2004 as a Ramon y Cajal (RyC) fellow (RyC is a grant given to talented young researchers who would like to develop their research career in a Spanish institution) with the ambition to create, from zero, a new applied biotechnology research line. Implementing his strong experience in biochemical functionalization of (bio)polymers acquired during his Individual Marie-Curie funded postdoctoral project at the University of Minho (Portugal), he built the first and still unique applied biotechnology group at UPC - the Group of Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology - and its advanced research infrastructure.
Internationally recognized for novelty and excellence, multidisciplinary research in polymer and fiber biotechnology, nano(bio)technology, medical devices, point-of-care diagnosis, tissue regeneration, antimicrobial strategies, cosmetics, and bio-based nano-enabled composite materials for a broad range of applications, was initiated and established in the group.
His career was built internationally in three different countries and host institutions, demonstrates that he can propose and conduct ground-breaking research, showing scientific expertise and capacity to win and successfully execute new projects. He created jobs in research and provided opportunities for career development of 12 junior and 13 senior researchers.
Over the last 10 years, he has been Principal Investigator at UPC in 24 competitive multidisciplinary projects (19 European and 5 national) in area of applied biotechnology, nanotechnology, and health, and 6 academia-industry Technology Transfer contracts.
