Biography

I received my Ph.D. with trainings in embryology and molecular biology from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain) in 2009. In collaboration with Dr. Catalina Hernández (Thesis mentor), we discovered for the first time in chick embryos the presence of transcription induced chimerism (TIC) between the genes of tyrosine hydroxylase and insulin, published in 2006 in Nucleic Acids Research. In addition, my collaborative project with Dr. Virginio García-Martínez at the University of Extremadura (Spain) demonstrated that tyrosine hydroxylase played a key role in cardiogenesis and heart chamber specification and resulted in a co-first author paper in Cardiovascular Research. Furthermore, my graduate studies also contributed to the development of a patent for the use of catecholamines in mouse ESC differentiation (WO 2010/018297).
      I next pursued my postdoctoral research at University of Pennsylvania in the laboratory of Dr. Marianthi Kiriakidou in 2009 studying the role of Argonaute (Ago) proteins using mouse ESCs as model. I also investigated the role of miRNAs in a Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Sle) mouse model and published a second author paper in EMBO Mol. Medicine.

       In October 2011, I joined Dr. Qyang’s laboratory at Yale Cardiology and Yale Stem Cell Center to pursue my long-term research interest in cardiovascular stem cell biology. In collaboration with several surgeons at Yale Cardiology we have generated mice models for myocardial infarction (MI) and single ventricle disease. I have applied successfully cell therapy in mice with MI using engineered heart tissues (EHTs) with mouse embryonic stem cell (ESC)-derived Isl1 cardiovascular progenitor cells (ICPCs). Besides ICPCs research, I have been actively pursuing patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) research focusing on the generation and characterization of a model of supravalvular aortic stenosis (SVAS). My significant contribution to this project led to a recent, co-first author publication in the top cardiovascular journal Circulation.

       In 2013 Connecticut Government granted me $200,000 to study the effect of human ICPCs therapy after myocardial infarction and I obtained in the same year the promotion to Associate Research Scientist.