pilar puerto-camacho

Postdoctoral Research Associate. Funded by CRUK Early Detection

Pilar studied  Biochemistry at the University of Seville. As an undergraduate student, she started her scientific career by understanding the molecular insights of transcriptional elongation from the yeast S. cerevisiae, in the Gene Expression group headed by Prof. Sebastián Chávez at the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS) in Spain. 

Her doctoral thesis was conducted at the Molecular Pathology group headed by Prof. Enrique de Alava (IBiS). Her Thesis project was focused on Ewing sarcoma, a highly aggressive bone/soft tissue malignancy. In that research, Pilar sought to understand the molecular role of endoglin and the potential use of this protein as a target of antibody-drug conjugates in Ewingsarcoma cells, with promising results. During that time, she was awarded an EMBO Short-Term Fellowship and an EACR Travel Fellowship to visit Prof. Val Brunton's laboratory at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer in Edinburgh.

Apart from wet-lab work, Pilar is also interested in scientific commutation. Thus, she was part of a young researcher roundtable at her home institute and present talks at IBiS and  Menéndez Pelayo International University. Pilar has been also involved in scientific dissemination through activities such as the 'Open Lecture Room for Adults' at Pablo de Olavide University (Las Cabezas de San Juan, Spain).

Her personal and scientific motivation drives her career towards a better comprehension of cancer progression. Her role as a postdoctoral research associate at Dr. Daniel Muñoz-Espin's laboratory will contribute to this end by depicting the molecular processes affected by senescence in lung cancer and the tumour microenvironment.

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Selected publications

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• Endoglin in the Spotlight to Treat Cancer.

Gonzalez Munoz T, Amaral AT, Puerto-Camacho P, Peinado H, de Alava E. 

Int J Mol Sci. 2021;22(6). 

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• Hippo pathway effectors YAP/TAZ induce an EWS-FLI1-opposing gene signature and associate with disease progression in Ewing sarcoma.

Rodriguez-Nunez P, Romero-Perez L, Amaral AT, Puerto-Camacho P, Jordan C, Marcilla D, et al.  

J Pathol. 2020;250(4):374-86. 

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• Preclinical Efficacy of Endoglin-Targeting Antibody-Drug Conjugates for the Treatment of EwingSarcoma. 

Puerto-Camacho P, Amaral AT, Lamhamedi-Cherradi SE, Menegaz BA, Castillo-Ecija H, Ordonez JL, et al. 

Clin Cancer Res. 2019;25(7):2228-40.