Dr Virginia Llopis-Hernandez
Research Associate
Biography
I have a PhD in Biotechnology between the University Polytechnic of Valencia and the University of Glasgow with Prof Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez. During my PhD, I developed a biomaterial for bone regeneration using small doses of growth factors to target stem cell differentiation. This project led to having more related projects and clinical trials on animals and humans. I joined Prof Matthew Dalby lab (University of Glasgow) for my first postdoc involved in a very multidisciplinary EPSRC project involving 7 research groups, several biomaterials as well as cell types. During my postdoc at the University of Glasgow, I was awarded a Wellcome Trust ISSF Catalyst project to open an independent research line in which I studied metabolomics on wound healing and fibrosis. Then I moved to London and I had the opportunity to do a short postdoc position with Prof Maddy Parsons (King’s College London) understanding how membrane receptors contribute to both mechanical and chemical sensing in connective tissue. I have a very interdisciplinary profile with an interest in how the microenvironment affects cell behaviour in healthy and diseased tissue and, how it can be used to model and direct cells to behave in a particular way. The aim of my current project in Joanna Jackow’s Lab (KCL) is to investigate novel therapeutic alternatives for aggressive cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) associated with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB), a rare genetic skin disease.
Here are my Google Scholar citations.