Molecular and Cell Biology

PhD in Biology (Universitat de Barcelona)

Berta Alsina was awarded a PhD in Genetics from the Universitat de Barcelona in 1999. She then did a postgraduate degree in the United States, at UCLA, where she carried out research into the role of neurotrophins in axogenesis ‎and synaptogenesis. In 2001 she joined UPF on the Developmental Biology course and to study the development of the inner ear in vertebrates. She has been an assistant professor since 2012 and is involved with several subjects on Bachelor’s and Master’s degree courses, as well as heading a research group. Berta Alsina has supervised five PhD theses and over 15 Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree Final Projects.

PhD in Pharmacy

Elena Hidalgo graduated in pharmacy from the University of Barcelona, where she obtained her PhD in Biochemistry. After eight years of postdoctoral work in Boston and London, she was recruited by UPF in 2000, where she is currently codirector of the Oxidative Stress and Cell Cycle Group. Her lab uses the Schizosaccharomyces pombe eukaryotic model system to study the toxicity associated with oxygen-derived species, specifically protein oxidation and aggregation, and to describe the signalling processes controlled by oxidants.

PhD in Cell Biology (University of Seville)

After completing her PhD in Cell Biology at the University of Seville, Margarita Cabrera Sola worked as a postdoctoral fellow and senior postdoc at the University of Osnabrück (Germany). In 2014 she worked for a year as a senior postdoc at ERIBA research centre (Groningen, Netherlands), where she studied changes linked to ageing processes and senescence. Since 2016 she has formed part of Dr Elena Hidalgo’s research group at the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences (DCEXS) at UPF. Her research focuses on molecular mechanisms that control cell longevity, with particular interest on those that delay the onset of ageing.