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Biography:

Very early in my life I was wishing to become a scientist. I got my degree in Biology (specialized in molecular biology and genetic engineering) in 2004 at the University of Murcia (Spain). My passion for science led me to start in the bench work in 2001 as a student in the Department of Cell Biology and Genetics at the University of Murcia. As a result, I defended my degree thesis in 2004 where it was described the first gene without 3’ UTR.

Since my interest on science, and more in detail on tumor processes, became bigger and bigger, in 2004 I moved to Madrid to begin my PhD (2004-2009) under the supervision of Dr. Maria Blasco at the National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), where I focused on understanding the relationship between cancer and aging. The scientific contribution there had a high impact, as we discovered that telomerase, the enzyme responsible for elongating the end of chromosomes in each round of replication, which until then had been associated with tumor processes, had a positive impact on keeping tissue homeostasis and extending lifespan in mouse models. The work was awarded by the American Association for Cancer Research (2007) and published in 2008 in Cell. Because of the findings I was interviewed in different national new channels. In this period, I have also published in other journals such as EMBO report and Aging Cell (where we established a metabolomic profile to predict aging-associated diseases).

At the end of my thesis, I got two important fellowships to perform my postdoctoral stage: Marie Curie FP7 and EMBO long term. During my thesis I became interested in DNA damage associated with cancer as a process. So I decided to make my postdoctoral stay in the laboratory of Dr. Simon Boulton in the prestigious Clare Hall, Cancer Research UK, in London (2010-2012) where I worked studying the relationship between chromatin remodeling protein, DNA damage and liver cancer. Liver cancer was what drove me to Dr. Guadalupe Sabio’s laboratory at the National Cardiovascular Research Centre (CNIC). In 2012, as collaboration, I started working in her laboratory in order to finish the work I started with Simon Boulton (which is still to be published). Currently I am doing my second postdoc in her lab. At this time, while continuing to actively work on the project of Cancer Research UK, I started my own projects based on my experience in liver cancer. We have just finished the work (although science never ends) and we are close to send the paper to Cell (submitted). We have described that p38γ (a Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase, MAPK) behaving as a CDK-like protein phosphorylating Rb, inducing hepatocellular carcinoma. We have demonstrated that when p38γ is absent in hepatocytes cell cycle is blocked and hepatocytes cannot progress from G0 to G1, thus it is the first time that a non CDK protein is essential for the cell cycle. The most encouraging the results is that the results could be extrapolated to the clinic due to the fact that we have found an FDA-approved drug that seems to be important in liver cancer treatment when p38γ fails.

From 2012 to the present, I have been awarded with a Juan de la Cierva and MINECO two important national fellowships. In the last one I am the principal investigator so currently, I have a semi-independent position.

It is also worth to mention that I had two patents:

Title: Telomerase reverse transcriptase for protection against aging-associated degenerative and inflammatory processes. Designated states: AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB GR HR HU IE IS IT LI LT LU LV MC MT NL NO PL PT RO SE SI SK TR. Investor (published=1, not published=0):1/Blasco Marhuenda, María Antonia (CNIO).1/Tomás Loba, Antonia (CNIO).1/Flores Hernandez, Ignacio (CNIO).1/Serrano, Manuel (CNIO).

Títle: “p38 inhibitor for the treatment and prophylaxis of liver cancer”. Designated states: AL AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB GR HR HU IE IS IT LI LT LU LV MC MK MT NL NO PL PT RO RS SE SI SK SM TR. Inventors: (published=1, not published=2)

1/Sabio, Guadalupe (CNIC), 1/Tomas-Loba, Antonia (CNIC), González-Terán, Bárbara (CNIC), 1/Manieri, Elisa (CNIC).

Although I work hardly bench-wise and thinking of projects, I also consider it is really important to do Science in other way: communicating to the society what we do in the laboratories. For that, I became a member of several societies and create and participate in different activities: