Short biography
Direna Alonso-Curbelo completed her PhD at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center and pursued postdoctoral research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (USA), uncovering plasticity mechanisms that shape neoplastic transformation and tumor-immune crosstalk. In 2022, she established the Inflammation, Tissue Plasticity & Cancer laboratory at IRB Barcelona to elucidate non-genetic mechanisms governing cancer initiation and immune escape. Combining mouse genetics, single-cell methods, and functional genomics, her group studies how otherwise protective processes, such as tissue regeneration, are co-opted to initiate tumors, reshape premalignant and malignant ecosystems, and drive cancer evolution, with a focus on inflammation-driven cancers. Her distinctions include the Blavatnik Regional Award for Young Scientists (2021), a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship (2023, ranked 1st in Biomedicine), the AACR Cancer Discovery Early Career Award (2024), and an ERC Consolidator Grant (2024).
