Biography

Maria graduated from Lleida University after completing her Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Sciences. For her bachelor’s thesis, she moved to Madrid, where she characterized and validated a new monoclonal antibody that targets a pro-tumorigenic factor in melanoma mouse tumors. After her internship at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center, she decided to stay and assist in optimizing a skin-equivalent melanoma model for an organ-on-a-chip project. During that time, she started her Master’s program in Advanced Therapies in the Biomedical field that gave her the opportunity to come to Pereira’s Lab to do her master’s thesis. Her aim is to characterize the interaction of the immune systems in the tumor microenvironment with cDC1 reprogrammed cancer cells in vivo, especially focusing on the development of tertiary lymphoid structures within the tumor.

In her free time, Maria enjoys meeting with friends and family over board games and good conversation. She is also really fond of a good book and music, and whenever there’s snow, she loves hitting the slopes for some skiing.