Fundación “la Caixa” awards grants to five young CNIC researchers
Five researchers received grants for excellent research to carry out their projects at CNIC. The INPhINIT doctoral and Junior Leader post-doc fellowships awarded by Fundación “la Caixa” have the dual aim of supporting young talent to conduct their research in Spain or Portugal and of attracting foreign researchers to these countries.
The recipients for 2022 are Andra Cristina Dumitru, who received the post-doctoral Junior Leader grant, and Jorge Peña, Aurora Semerano, Danielle Medina-Hernandez and Manuel Gavilán Herrera, who received an INPhINIT doctoral grant.
The awards offer competitive salaries and transversal training. In the case of the doctoral grants, they strengthen capacities like scientific communication, emotional wellbeing for researchers, leadership and funding opportunities. On the other hand, the post-doctoral fellowship training focusses on fostering an independent scientific career as a future professional option and fostering innovation and leadership.
Fundación “la Caixa”’s programme is the most important of its kind sponsored by private enterprise in Spain and Europe, both for the number of awards and for the variety of disciplines. In this edition, the foundation will award 20.2 million euros in doctoral and post-doctoral grants. Both programmes have been co-funded by the European Commission under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement within the Horizon 2020 framework.
ANDRA CRISTINA DUMITRU
Post-doctorate in Biophysics
Andra Dumitru graduated in Chemical Engineering from the Universitatea Politehnica din București (Romania) and then completed a master’s in Organic Chemistry at the Complutense University, Madrid, in 2012. After finishing the master, she changed route to begin a doctorate in Physics at the Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (CSIC) with a JAE predoctoral fellowship. As a chemist, she is drawn to multidisciplinary approaches, which inspired her to expand her knowledge in biophysics and surface chemistry within the field of atomic force microscopy.
As a post-doc researcher her focus combines high-resolution atomic force microscopy and live-cell confocal imaging to study the mechanical and biophysical properties of single molecules and cells.
She returned to Spain in 2021 thanks to a Juan de la Cierva Incorporacion fellowship and joined the Molecular Mechanics of the Cardiovascular System Group at CNIC under Dr. Jorge Alegre. She is currently developing her own line of research that focusses on studying the mechanical regulation of nuclear proteins in pathogenic conditions. Her goal is to tackle biomedical problems that are important for society, such as diabetes mellitus, cancer or ageing using a multidisciplinary approach that combines the latest advances in nano-biophysics with single-molecule techniques, protein biochemistry and animal models.
MANUEL GAVILÁN HERRERA
Doctorate in Molecular Biosciences
Manuel Gavilán is an aerospace engineer (with a degree and a master’s) from the Universidad Carlos III, Madrid. After an academic year at the Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, Purdue University (Indiana, USA), where he worked as a flight dynamics engineer in charge of keeping satellites in position at optimum altitude, he decided to change route and do a master in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biomedicine at Madrid’s Complutense University (2022). With Fundación “la Caixa”’s INPhINIT Retaining grant he hopes to capitalise on his double experience to complete his doctorate at CNIC’s Molecular Mechanics of the Cardiovascular System Laboratory. During the doctorate, he will research the role of the giant protein, titin, in the mechanobiology of cardiomyocytes and its importance for heart function in healthy and pathological states.
DANIELLE MEDINA-HERNANDEZ
Doctorate in Molecular Biosciences
Danielle Medina-Hernandez graduated in Health Sciences and Exercise (2018) at Wake Forest University (North Carolina, USA) and holds a master’s in Biomedical Sciences (2019) from the same university. In 2017, she participated in the “Excellence in Cardiovascular Science” programme and became interested in anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity and obtaining cardiovascular MRI images. Her master’s dissertation studied neruokinin-1 receptor blockers as a treatment strategy for anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity in a murine model.
In 2021, she joined Dr. Borja Ibáñez’s laboratory as a Fullbright fellow, where she will continue as a doctoral student. Her research aims to understand the cardioprotective mechanisms of sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors and develop strategies for the treatment of anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity in a porcine model.
JORGE PEÑA
Doctorate in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biomedicine
In 2016, Jorge Peña began his degree in Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at the Universitat de València. In 2019, he received a grant from his university to study at the North Carolina State University (Raleigh, USA) for a semester. He completed his degree in 2020 at the top of his class and received the Premio Extraordinario de Grado (Extraordinary Degree Award) and recognition of the Spanish Society of Academic Excellence as best Biochemistry graduate in the country. That same year, he moved to Madrid to complete a master’s in Molecular Biomedicine at the Autonomous University of Madrid with a CNIC-Acciona grant.
Jorge began his research career after the second academic course when he joined García-Verdugo’s laboratory at Valencia University. He worked for two years on the neurogenesis and biology of oligodendrocytes. He also undertook a short internship at CNIC in 2019 thanks to the CICERONE programme. For his master’s dissertation, he chose a different subject: the cell competition of cardiomyocytes. This biological process, with major implications in heart regeneration, is the main subject of the research for his doctoral thesis, which he is preparing at CNIC’s Genetic Control of Organ Development and Regeneration Group.
AURORA SEMERANO
Doctorate in Biomedical Research
Aurora Semerano is a physician (Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy, 2013) who specialises in neurology (Neurology Department and Neuroimmunology Unit, Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan, Italy, 2019) and has a particular interest in cerebrovascular diseases.
During her residency, she obtained a clinical research fellowship at the Cerebral Vascular Pathologies Unit at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. She has also undertaken clinical practice fellowships at the Neurovascular Intensive Care Unit (Hôpital Fondation Adolphe de Rothschild, Paris, France) and at the Stroke Centre (Inselspital, University Hospital of Berne, Switzerland), where she researched in the field of stroke immunology and thromboinflammation. She is currently undertaking her doctorate at CNIC under the supervision of Dr. Mª Ángeles Moro and Dr. Marta Cortés, with the support of a Fundación “la Caixa” fellowship grant.
