Three Biotechnology graduates return to the UVic to discuss their research career at the Bioscience Morning

Three alumni of the degree course in Biotechnology of the Faculty of Science and Technology (FCT) took part in the Biosciences Morning which took place in the Sala Segimon Serrallonga last Friday. The three of them talked about their career in the research field after graduating to an audience consisting mainly of students on Biology and Biotechnology bachelor's degree courses.

First, Laura Escudero, a postdoctoral researcher at the Vall d'Hebron Oncology Research Institute (VHIO) in Barcelona, discussed the results of her doctoral thesis on telomeres and cancer that she produced at the University of Cardiff (United Kingdom). Second, Javier Prado gave a lecture on the genomic revolution applied to human evolution, his field of expertise. After graduating from the UVic, Prado wrote his doctoral thesis on the evolution of the great apes, and he has carried out research at centres including the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, where he currently works.

Finally, Sandra Petrus talked about her career, both from the scientific point of view and about her personal experience, from when she began her degree course at the UVic to the present day, as a post-doctoral researcher at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm (Sweden). Her research focuses on the development of a cell therapy that repairs the retina in advanced cases of age-related macular degeneration, a disease of the central portion of the retina that leads to deterioration of the central visual field, and affects more than eight million people worldwide.