Isabel Ferreirós-Vidal

Isabel Ferreirós Vidal is PhD in Molecular Biology. She has a multidisciplinary research background that combines population genetics in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases with an extensive expertise in the study of gene transcriptional regulation within the immune cell compartment.

I have obtained my PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Santiago de Compostela. During my PhD studies, I have investigated the role of genetic factors contributing to the susceptibility to autoimmune diseases in collaboration with the Rheumatology Department of the University Hospital of Santiago de Compostela. At this career stage, I gained a deep understanding of the biology and genetic analysis of human autoimmune diseases and became really interested in the mechanisms that regulate gene expression in the immune cells.

Being awarded with a postdoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (MEC), I moved to the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (MRC LMS) where I had studied the molecular mechanisms regulating gene transcription during the maturation of B cell progenitors and their implications on the development of the Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. Throughout these studies, I was trained in the generation and analysis of transcriptomics and epigenomics data using microarrays and next generation sequencing technologies as RNA-Seq or ChIP-Seq, acquiring highly specialized scientific and technical skills while participating in different UK and international projects, highlighting the STATegra project (http://www.stategra.eu) funded by the European Commission.

After a career break due to parenting responsibilities, I had the opportunity to re-start my scientific career on the biomedical research field collaborating with the department of Medical Oncology and the Liquid Biopsy Unit from the University Hospital of Santiago de Compostela, analysing circulating tumour DNA biomarkers to predict disease prognosis and therapy responses in cancer patients and studying the tumoral mechanisms to evade recognition from the immune cells.

My increasing interest to understand the immunological responses to disease together with my previous international experience working on transcriptomics and epigenomic research projects, led me to join GenPoB (Population Genetics in Biomedicine) at the Research Health Institute of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS), a research team with wide experience in genomics and transcriptomics analysis of healthy and disease population. Currently, as a postdoctoral member of GenPoB and in collaboration with the Genvip (Genetics, Vaccines, Infectious Disease and Pediatrics) group, I am working on the establishment of an emergent research line based on the use of Immunosequencing technologies for the identification of immunological profiles that correlate with protection from infectious diseases and with vaccine responses.