Biography
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Christopher K. Glass laboratory at UCSD. I was born and raised in Spain and undertook my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at the University of Navarra. After that, I moved to Oxford to work as a research Assistant at the Hematology Unit of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital. Then, I moved to University College London for my Master’s in Cell and Developmental Biology. For my PhD, I returned to Spain to the Spanish National Cancer Research Center in Madrid, where, under the supervision of Dr Francisco X. Real, I studied the role of the nuclear receptor NR5A2 in pancreas inflammation and pancreatic cancer. For my postdoctoral research, I moved to the United States to get more experience using genomics to unravel inflammatory signaling pathways in macrophages during homeostasis and disease. As part of a collaboration with Dr Monica Guma and Dr Robert Terkeltaub, I became interested in how monosodium urate crystals activate macrophage biology during gout, clonal hematopoiesis and cardiovascular disease. Thanks to the ANRF award, I can continue developing my research program and expand my knowledge in gouty inflammation.
Research Summary:
I am particularly interested in deciphering the mechanistic cascade of events leading to the induction of inflammatory signaling pathways. My research interests involve understanding inflammatory molecules as critical mediators of embryo development and gatekeepers of homeostasis of adult tissues and how inflammatory pathways are deregulated in chronic inflammatory diseases, including gout, atherosclerosis, and cancer. My research experience at top-class laboratories has helped me to develop new perspectives on state-of-art science. It has given me an excellent background in multiple biological disciplines, including embryo manipulation, molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, and bioinformatics. For my ANRF project, I am looking at the epigenetic changes induced by monosodium urate crystals in macrophages, which will be crucial to understanding gout’s association with other co-morbidities.
