Dr. Ferran Feixas is currently a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Computational Chemistry and Catalysis (IQCC) of the University of Girona. Dr. Feixas obtained his doctorate in Chemistry in 2011 at the University of Girona (Spain) under the direction of Prof. Miquel Solà, Prof. Jordi Poater and Dr. Eduard Matito During the doctoral thesis (FPU scholarship), he worked on the application and development of computational chemistry tools for the analysis of chemical bonding and aromaticity. In this period, he carried out research stays in France (Prof. B. Silvi) and Germany (Prof. L. González). Upon graduation, he joined the University of California, San Diego (UCSD, USA) for a two-year postdoctoral position with a Beatriu de Pinós (BP) fellowship with the group of Prof. J. Andrew McCammon. At UCSD, he gained experience in computational biochemistry, drug discovery, and biomolecular simulations. In particular, he worked on the incorporation of molecular dynamics simulations into computer-aided drug discovery protocols and on the development and application of improved sampling techniques based on accelerated molecular dynamics (aMD) simulations to study protein folding.
In 2015, he joined the Institute of Computational Chemistry and Catalysis (UdG) with a Marie Curie IF Individual Grant to study the molecular basis of (bio)molecular recognition and self-assembly with molecular dynamics simulations. In 2018, he joined the CompBioLab research group as Senior Researcher and co-PI together with Prof. Sílvia Osuna (IUdG) working on the application of improved sampling techniques to explore the role of conformational dynamics in enzyme catalysis and the improvement of computational protocols for enzyme design.
Since 2019,
Dr. Feixas has been recognized as a Principal Investigator (PI) at the
IQCC (UdG). He has obtained several projects as PI, including a Retos de la
Sociedad JIN project (RTI2018-101032-J-I00), a Ramón y Cajal
fellowship (RYC2020-029552-I), a TED project (TED2021-130173B-C42),
and a MICINN "I+D Generación de Conocimiento" project (PID2022-141676NB-I00).
His group''s research aims to develop novel computational strategies
integrating various simulation techniques to reconstruct step-by-step
(bio)chemical processes. This knowledge is harnessed to advance drug
discovery, supramolecular complex design, and (bio)catalysis.
Currently, his team consists of 7 PhD students and one postdoc who have
joined since 2023. Their studies focus on topics including: a) Enzymatic catalysis in complex biochemical
processes involving long-time scales such as protein allostery
(JACS 2022) and substrate binding (Front. Mol.
Sci. 2022); b) encapsulation and catalysis in supramolecular
systems (JACS 2020, JACS 2024, CSS Chem 2025, JACS 2025); c)
harnessing mechanistic insights into enzymatic catalysis for drug
design (J. Med. Chem. 2022)andinhibitor selectivity
(and Nature 2019).
Dr. Feixas scientific
production includes 2 book chapters and +70
publications in international peer-reviewed journals.
He is the first, second, or corresponding author on 40+ of these
publications (15+ as corresponding author). His work has received more
than 3500 citations (December 2025, Scopus). He has
delivered seminars and participated in 70+ conferences,
including 15+ invited talks (WATOC and ACS among them).