Marta E. Alarcon-Riquelme

My background in Medicine, Immunology and Genetics make a unique combination and provide me with the tools I need to successfully carry my research. For nearly 30 years of research career I focused on the identification of the genetic basis of systemic lupus erythematosus as a first building block towards understanding how genes lead to cellular abnormalities that eventually to clinical disease. A main goal of my research is to understand the mechanisms behind disease pathogenesis, identify new biomarkers for prediction of disease outcomes, flares and remission, and find new therapeutic targets, understanding the mechanisms of response and non-response to therapies, and define the heterogeneity of SLE as well as that of other immune-mediate diseases. I believe that only through careful longitudinal analysis of the patients, and proper molecular analyses, will we be able to advance our understanding of immune mediated diseases. I am using systems biology approaches, -omics data integration and clustering, scRNASeq and other omics methods and bioinformatics approaches in my research. We use also animal models to study their similitudes with the human disease and for the understanding of the function of susceptibility genes in the pathogenesis of disease. By coordinating large multicenter studies in Europe (PRECISESADS – 2014-2019, and 3TR – 2019-2026), I gained important experience in this and in my relationship with the pharmaceutical industry.