DrLaura Rangel-Sanchez

I am an Early Career Scientist (ECR) at the School of Biomedical Engineering. I completed a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and a Master’s degree in Biotechnology at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Spain. After completing my PhD in Molecular Biosciences (UAM), I moved to the Garvan Institute of Medical Research to pursue postdoctoral studies on breast cancer. (March 2019) During that period I gained technical and conceptual experience on the molecular mechanisms driving cancer chemotherapy resistance. I also developed a strong interest in the mechanisms of cell-cell communication in 3D models.

As an ECR I was awarded an international post-doctoral fellowship (Ramon Areces Foundation, 2020-2022). During that stage of my career, I also participated in successful grant applications, contributing to their design, writing and generation of preliminary data such as the Perpetual's IMPACT grant ($100K). I also supervised two honours students and a PhD student. Additionally, I was a member of the Postdoctoral Development Committee, an association that aims to complement the postdoctoral training, facilitating the acquisition of new skills through specialised seminars, cross-fertilising ideas organising workshops and symposiums with postdocs from 3 different MRIs and a Hospital.

In May 2022, I joined the School of Biomedical Engineering under the supervision of David Gallego-Ortega to work on using tissue-engineering platforms to understand tissue development and accelerate precision medicine in cancer with a strong focus on 3D models and confocal imaging.