Gabriel Luna

Dr. Gabriel Luna Bárcenas was a senior researcher and professor at Cinvestav (Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute) in Querétaro, Mexico. He was also a senior researcher at the CID-DESC, an industrial R&D center. 

He has taught graduate-level courses in areas such as kinetics of materials, polymer science, biomaterials, chemistry of materials, advanced mathematics, and advanced thermodynamics.

As a chemical engineer, his work has focused on biotechnology and studying and developing nanomaterials for industrial and medical applications, like biopolymers and biomaterials. In Mexico, he has led various industrial projects including the development of chemicals for agriculture, polymer-based packaging, glass, and industrial lubricants.

Since 2008, Gabriel Luna has been delegate at the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), in the Polymer Division, of the region of Mexico & Latin America, and since 2015, he has been president of the Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Network of the National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies (CONAHCYT) in Mexico. In addition, he has reached the SNI-III level as a researcher, which is the highest level given by the National Research System (SNI) in Mexico.

From 2015 to 2017, he was a member of the Evaluation Committee Area VII for the Mexican Scientific Accreditation Committee, and from 2005 to 2007, he was president of the Mexican Polymer Society.

His research interests are in the synthesis and characterization of biopolymers; nanocomposites for biomedical and environmental applications; spectroscopic characterization of materials; green-solvent-based technologies based on Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES); relaxation phenomena in bio nanocomposites; and R&D for industry-related projects. 

He has led funded research projects in both Mexico and the United States on topics such as magnetic nanowires decorated with BODIPY; agronanotechnology products; bacteria-mediated synthesis of metal nanoparticles from bioremediation of contaminated waters along the U.S.-Mexico border in collaboration with the state of Texas; biopolymers for biomedical applications in collaboration with the Inter-American Materials Collaboration (CIAM) and funded by both the National Science Foundation in the United States (NSF) and CONAHCYT in Mexico; among others.

He has two international patents related to polymers and turbidimetry.

Gabriel Luna has given over 100 presentations and talks all over the world including the European Polymer Congress organized by the European Polymer Federation (EPF); the Institute of Materials Science of Madrid, Spain; the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; and several universities like the University of Manchester, in England.

He co-authored the book “Biotechnology in Agriculture, Industry and Medicine: Chitosan-Based Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering Applications” (2011) and edited several other books on polymer science.

He has over 600 total publications on solvents, polymers, organic nanofibers, polymerization, nanoparticle synthesis of elements, and nanocomposites for either industrial and/or medical applications that have been published in some of the most relevant journals of his field like the European Polymer Journal, Progress in Polymer Science, International Journal of Food Microbiology, Green Chemistry, Nanomedicine, and Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology, to name some.

In 2014, he was awarded to be a Fulbright Scholar given by the U.S. Department of State. In 2005, he was awarded the Best Master Thesis prize by the Technical University of Berlin, Germany (Sebastian Stolz), with the thesis of “Phase behavior of styrene-co-isoprene-co-styrene in tetrahydrofuran in supercritical carbon dioxide” (co-director: Wolfang Arlt). 

Gabriel Luna joined Tecnológico de Monterrey as Distinguished Professor in Smart Biomaterials for the School of Engineering and Sciences, and the Institute of Advanced Materials for Sustainable Manufacturing.

• Postdoctoral Fellow, Princeton University
• Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin
• M.Sc., Chemical Engineering, Instituto Tecnológico de Celaya
• Chemical Engineering, Instituto Tecnológico de Celaya

• Luna-Barcenas, Gabriel. (2023). Electrostrictive and piezoelectrical properties of chitosan-poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) blend films. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules. 126251. 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.126251.

• Prokhorov, E. & Luna-Barcenas, Gabriel & Yañez Limon, Jose & Muñoz-Saldaña, J.. (2023). Flexoelectricity and piezoelectric effects in poly (vinyl alcohol)-SrTiO3 nanocomposites. Materials Research Bulletin. 166. 112361. 10.1016/j.materresbull.2023.112361. 

• Cervantes Chávez, José & García-Bouchot, Gastón & García-Gutiérrez, Nataly & Castañeda, Haydé & Nava, Rufino & Luna-Barcenas, Gabriel & Elizalde, Eduardo & Esquivel-Naranjo, Edgardo & Landeros, Fidel & Rojas, Norma & Pool, Hector. (2023). Biogenic Silver Nanoparticles and Stressors Generate Synergistic Growth Inhibition in Candida Species through Cell Wall Damage, Osmotic Stress, and Oxidative Stress. Current pharmaceutical biotechnology. 24. 10.2174/1389201024666230303145653. 

• Bravo-Alfaro, Diego & Prokhorov, E. & Luna-Barcenas, Gabriel & Garcia, Hugo. (2023). Unveiling the dielectric properties of self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems (SNEDDS). Journal of Molecular Liquids. 374. 121304. 10.1016/j.molliq.2023.121304. 

• Luna-Barcenas, Gabriel. (2011). Chitosan-Based Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering Applications.

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