Sandra Viz-Lasheras
Researcher
“I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones”.
John Cage
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I am a biology graduate from Universidad de Santiago de Compostela where I found myself dazzled for first time by the exciting world of scientific research. I was especially interested about health research, genetics and molecular biology fields. During this period, I had the great opportunity to perform laboratory practices in prestigious research centers such as the Centre for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases (CIMUS) or the “Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Hospital Universitario de Santiago de Compostela” (IDIS), within the department of neuroendocrinology, energy, homeostasis, metabolism and cancer and the group of neuroendocrine and rheumatic diseases respectively.
In 2017, I moved to Barcelona to study a Master degree in Advanced Genetics at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona where I had the pleasure to took part in the research activity of the laboratory of the Genomic Instability and DNA Repair group of the university, directed by Dr. Jordi Surrallès.
I have developed driving skills in different techniques as mammalian cell cultures, molecular cloning, cytotoxicity assays, lentiviral particles production, Western Blot, PCR, CRISPR Cas9 gene editing, etc.
I actively collaborated in research studies and publications about breast cancer risk magnitude of FANCM truncating mutations, which are part of national and international projects.
From October 2019, I am working as PhD student of Molecular Medicine in the GENPOB group directed by Pr. Antonio Salas and located in the Instituto de Investigaciones Sanitarias de where I perform functional genomic studies using the leading technologies of gene editing, specially focused in analyze transcriptomics markers that were found to be differentially expressed by the host in response to viral or bacterial infections but also studying the molecular basis of a rare disease: Progressive Osseous Heteroplasia (POH), both in “in vitro” and “in vivo” models. In January 2020 I obtained a pre-doctoral fellowship offered by Fundación IDIS.
As a woman researcher that is always curious and open to what science can offer, I feel very identified with a statement of the Aavant-garde composer John Cage that said “I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones”.