LOCATION

Botnar Research Centre, Old Road, Headington, Oxford OX3 7LD

I studied Veterinary Medicine at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Some years later I joined the Universitat de Barcelona and obtained a MSc in Biomedicine, where I later graduated with a PhD in Biomedicine in 2015. The main objective of my thesis was to study the osteoblast differentiation, where we described a microRNA involved in osteogenesis and we characterized the role of PI3 kinase in bone development and homeostasis.

My research in the Bone Oncology group, led by Dr Claire Edwards, is focused on multiple myeloma (MM), an hematologic cancer where malignant antibody-producing plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow. In most cases, multiple myeloma arises from an asymptomatic benign condition named MGUS (monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance). Currently, I am investigating the impact of the myeloma surrounding cells (microenvironment) in the progression of multiple myeloma and I am trying new therapeutic approaches in order to stop the progression of MGUS.

Nowadays, most MM patients relapse and become refractory to current therapies  A better understanding of the crosstalk between myeloma cells and its microenvironment will lead also to a better understanding of the multiple myeloma progression, and to the development of novel and maybe more successful therapeutical strategies.