Cesar de la Fuente
Presidential Associate Professor
Department: Psychiatry
Graduate Group Affiliations
Contact information
Robert Wood Johnson Pavilion / 3610 Hamilton Walk
Lab: Room 302C
Office: Room 303C
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Lab: Room 302C
Office: Room 303C
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Office: 2157466083
Publications
Education:
B.Sc. (Biotechnology)
University of Leon, 2009.
Ph.D. (Microbiology & Immunology)
University of British Columbia, 2014.
B.Sc. (Biotechnology)
University of Leon, 2009.
Ph.D. (Microbiology & Immunology)
University of British Columbia, 2014.
Post-Graduate Training
Postdoctoral Fellow, Microbiology & Immunology, University of British Columbia, 2014-2015.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Synthetic Biology, Biological Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, 2015-2017.
Postdoctoral Associate, Synthetic Biology, Biological Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, 2015-2019.
Permanent linkPostdoctoral Fellow, Microbiology & Immunology, University of British Columbia, 2014-2015.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Synthetic Biology, Biological Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, 2015-2017.
Postdoctoral Associate, Synthetic Biology, Biological Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, 2015-2019.
Selected Publications
Torres M.D.T., Wan F., de la Fuente-Nunez C. : Deep learning reveals antibiotics in the archaeal proteome. Nature Microbiology. August 2025 Notes: doi: 10.1038/s41564-025-02061-0.Torres M.D.T., Chen T., Wan F., Chatterjee P., de la Fuente-Nunez C. : Generative latent diffusion language modeling yields anti-infective synthetic peptides. Cell Biomaterials 2025 Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.celbio.2025.100183.
Guan C., Torres M.D.T., Li S., de la Fuente-Nunez C. : Computational exploration of global venoms for antimicrobial discovery with Venomics artificial intelligence. Nature Communications 2025 Notes: doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60051-6.
Torres M.D.T., Brooks E.F., Cesaro A., Sberro H., Gill M.O., Nicolaou C., Bhatt A.S., de la Fuente-Nunez C.: Mining human microbiomes reveals an untapped source of peptide antibiotics. Cell 187(19): 5453-5467, September 2024 Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.07.027.
Santos-Júnior C.D., Torres M.D.T., Duan Y., Rodríguez Del Río Á., Schmidt T.S.B., Chong H., Fullam A., Kuhn M., Zhu C., Houseman A., Somborski J., Vines A., Zhao X.M., Bork P., Huerta-Cepas J., de la Fuente-Nunez C., Coelho L.P.: Discovery of antimicrobial peptides in the global microbiome with machine learning. Cell 187(14): 3761-3778, July 2024 Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.05.013.
Maasch J.R.M.A., Torres M.D.T., Melo M.C.R., de la Fuente-Nunez C.: Molecular de-extinction of ancient antimicrobial peptides enabled by machine learning. Cell Host Microbe. Cell Press, 31(8): 1260-74, August 2023.
Torres M.D.T., Melo M.C.R., Flowers L., Crescenzi O., Notomista E., de la Fuente-Nunez C. : Mining for encrypted peptide antibiotics in the human proteome. Nature Biomedical Engineering 6(1): 67–75, January 2022 Notes: doi: 10.1038/s41551-021-00801-1.
Cesaro A., Torres M.D.T., Gaglione R., Dell'Olmo E., Di Girolamo R., Bosso A., Pizzo E., Haagsman H.P., Veldhuizen E.J.A., de la Fuente-Nunez C., Arciello A.: Synthetic Antibiotic Derived from Sequences Encrypted in a Protein from Human Plasma. ACS Nano 16(2): 1880-1895, February 2022 Notes: doi: 10.1021/acsnano.1c04496.
Silva O.N., Torres M.D.T., Cao J., Alves E.S.F., Rodrigues L.V., Resende J.M., Lião L.M., Porto W.F., Fensterseifer I.C.M., Lu T.K., Franco O.L., de la Fuente-Nunez C.: Repurposing a peptide toxin from wasp venom into antiinfectives with dual antimicrobial and immunomodulatory properties. PNAS 117(43): 26936-26945, October 2020 Notes: doi: 10.1073/pnas.2012379117.
Boaro A., Ageitos L., Torres M.D.T., Broset E.B., Oztekin S., and de la Fuente-Nunez C. : Structure-function-guided design of synthetic peptides with anti-infective activity derived from wasp venom. Cell Reports Physical Science 4(7): 101459, July 2023 Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2023.101459.