Cristina Ponce Lilly

Cristina obtained her Bachelor’s in Biology at the University of Navarra in 2020, where she performed a project on regenerative medicine, focused on cardiac myocardium regeneration post-infarction at CIMA. After graduating, she moved up to Edinburgh in 2020 to study an MSc on Biotechnology at the University of Edinburgh, where she had her first contact with the world of sustainability & product upcycling by working at MiAlgae, company focused on producing Omega-3-rich microalgae for aquiculture feed. After completing her MSc dissertation with them, she then worked for a year as a Research Associate at Askbio, where her research focused on AAV gene therapy screening as part of the In Vivo team. A year later, she started a PhD as part of the Molnar Lab, where she is currently working on CRISPR-mediated precision editing in photosynthetic microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, with research focused on gene-editing tool development and potential ways to engineer algae for biotechnological applications. In 2023, she joined SRUK/CERU Scotland, and has recently joined the Scottish constituency as Vicepresident. Outside the lab, she love to travel, sail and generally hang out with friends and have a good time.