How did you get interested in the field of Drug Discovery?
During my PhD and postdoc, I became an expert at creating cellular models of human diseases, with a special focus on cancer and retinopathies. The models helped to better understand the underlying mechanisms of pathology as well as to test drugs and biological therapies (i.e., gene therapy) in vitro. I became more and more interested in drug discovery once I realized that such cell models could be adapted and optimized for drug screening. Indeed, one of my aims now is to develop complex cell models that can be miniaturized for HTS.
Can you share a bit about your professional/scientific trajectory and your current role?
I did my PhD in pharmacogenetics of cancer. After two short postdocs in Spain, I moved to Boston (USA), where I did a 5-year postdoc at Harvard Medical School (Mass Eye and Ear). There, I became an independent faculty and was promoted to assistant professor, spending a total of 10 years at Harvard. Then I was recruited by a start-upbiotech company in Boston to develop non-viral gene therapy for ocular diseases. In 2022, I joined Fundación MEDINA, where I work as the Head of the Screening and Target Validation unit, leading a group of 17 researchers.
What kind of research are you focused on right now?
We are focused on the development of new drugs for cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and infectious diseases, including antibiotics and anti-viral drugs. MEDINA owns a vast library of microbial natural products that can be exploited as a source for new medicines.
Which technical and soft skills are crucial for your position?
I lead a multidisciplinary team, which requires a broad knowledge on different fields, including cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and metabolomics. I´m constantly expanding my knowledge in new technologies. I´m a cell biologist and molecular biologist by training, but in the last 3 years, I have learnt a lot about automatization of drug screening processes and miniaturization of assays to implement them in HTS platforms.
Crucial skills, beyond the technical experience, are writing grants and manuscripts, communicating science, networking, business development, raising funding, implementing new technologies, expanding to innovative equipment or technologies, etc.
Of course, soft skills are critical when it comes to manage a team of people. It is important to be transparent, communicate properly with the rest of the team, organize tasks, make sure that people know what you expect from them and align expectations. Also, keeping the team motivated and propel their scientific careers by supporting them scientifically and professionally. Mentoring is very important for me.
What accomplishment/s in your career do you feel most proud of?
I am very proud of the cell model that I developed to study macular degeneration. This helped many researchers to better understand the mechanisms of pathology of this disease, which affects about 200 million people worldwide and has no cure. This model has been used for different companies to test potential new drugs and biological treatments, including the development of ocular gene therapy to treat retinitis pigmentosa.
How do you balance work and personal life, especially when research demands are high?
I am married and have an 8-year-old child, who was born in the USA while I was a young faculty. We were far from grandparents or any other family, so we became very efficient in the way we used our time. My maternity leave lasted 10 weeks only, but my husband and I have always balanced our lives quite well. Now that we are back in Spain, my job requires traveling and working long hours/weekends sometimes. Fortunately, he works part time so that we can better balance our family life.
What part of your job do you find the most fulfilling or exciting?
The most exciting part is when I have a hypothesis, I design a scientific strategy to test it, and I get to demonstrate that I was right. It is the most amazing feeling, especially when that opens new avenues to treat human diseases with unmet medical needs. It makes me feel that all the hard work is worth it.
What emerging technologies or trends in Drug Discovery are you most excited about?
I am very excited about the use of high content imaging for drug screening. We are implementing this technology in MEDINA using cancer spheroids and the preliminary results are very promising.
I am also excited about cell painting, which will be very informative of the mechanisms of action of new drugs.
What are your thoughts about the current impact of Drug Discovery in Spain?
I think that Spain has advanced a lot in Drug Discovery in the last few years. More and more biotech companies are pumping up, and it seems to me that bringing small molecules from early discovery to the clinic is becoming more feasible nowadays. Raising funds remains a challenge, but I hope this will also improve in the coming years.
Researchers need to start thinking more translationally, and not be satisfied by publishing a paper, but also try to move forward towards developing new treatments. Bringing together industry and academia is crucial for this to become a reality.
