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Cesar de la Fuente, PhD

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
Office: 2157466083


I3H Keywords

  • Array

Publications

Pubmed Link


Links


Education

  • 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

Certifications

  • Completed the MIT Kaufman Teaching Certificate Program. , 2017
  • Selected to participate in the PSOM-Wharton Dr. Edward S. Cooper Leadership Development Program, 2023

Description of ITMAT Expertise

The Machine Biology Group aims to develop the first computer-made tools and medicines.

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 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.