International BraYniacs

Hospital Clínic de Barcelona (Spain) • PhD in Biomedicine (Title of my thesis: "Molecular mechanisms of resistance to therapy in glioblastoma" with a Cum Laude grade), graduated in Biochemistry by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and with a master's degree in Pharmacology from the same university. My first experience in the laboratory was in the clinical analysis laboratory Catlab, where I learned the techniques to process blood and urine samples from hospitals. During my master's degree, I had the opportunity to do my work placement in the research group, led by Núria de la Iglesia, about glioblastoma (GB), in the Department of Oncology and Hematology of IDIBAPS. In this project, we studied the role of an adhesion protein in the differentiation to the mesenchymal subtype of GB and in their radioresistance gain, which we published in Cell Reports in November 2017. During my PhD project, we identified and characterized lncRNAs and lncRNA-signatures that have an impact on the pathogenesis, diagnosis and prognosis of glioblastoma patients. In addition, I was collaborating on one AECC project of Dr. Seoane, processing and sending brain and blood samples of patients with GB and carrying the database of patients of the Hospital Clinic Barcelona. Moreover, I am collaborating with Dr. Maurel in the Nanostring's Project with metastatic colorectal cancer patients, to identify biomarkers to classify the patients depending on their RNA expression. Finally, I was the study coordinator of a clinical study (phase III) about aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (aSAH) to evaluate if Clazosentan can reduce the risk of developing complications related to cerebral vasospasm and permanent brain damage as compared to normal routine medical care alone. Nowadays, I am a post-doctoral researcher in the group about cerebrovascular diseases. We are studying the blood-brain barrier dysruption in cerebral arteriovenous malformation (bAVM) by MRI images, and blood and histological samples from patients. In addition, we are generating an animal model of bAVM by carotide-yugular fistula in the neck of the rat. I have experience in cell cultures, especially in cultures with neural- and gliomas-stem cells, fibroblasts, immunological cells and HEK293T, and in other laboratory techniques, such as Western Blotting, immunofluorescence staining, fluorescence microscopy, Maxipreps, produce viral particles for the subsequent infection of cell lines and in the study of the RNA expression through RT-qPCR, Nanostring technology or microarrays. In addition, I have the experimental animal handling course in the University of Barcelona (UB), the certificate of Good Clinical Practices (GCP), the certificate of handling and shipment of biological samples (IATA) and the advanced course on vascular-nervous microsurgery in live animals given by Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (2021) and I have experience in HSA rat model. Additionally, I also have basic knowledge of the statistical packages of R Commander (R Studio), SPSS, G-Stat, Graph Prism and Office. Finally, I have been the tutor of a biotechnology degree student at the University of Vic, I was a teaching assistant in the laboratory practices for one course in the subject of microbiology and cell biology, when I was in my fourth year of a university career, and I have taught a master class about molecular aspects of gliomas to students of the master's degree in biomedicine at the UB.