Dr Nerea Alonso graduated in Biochemistry from the University of Salamanca, Spain in 2003 and then she received her PhD in Cancer Biology and Clinical Studies at the same University. Her PhD research focused on the molecular analysis of patients with Gorlin syndrome, a rare disease involving developmental alterations and basal cell carcinomas. In 2008 she moved to Edinburgh, UK, joining the Rheumatology and Bone Disease Unit as a postdoctoral research fellow. She has been working on the characterisation of a model for Paget’s disease of bone and she has been active part of an international consortium to study osteoporosis (GEFOS), leading a collaborative effort to identify genetic variants predisposing to clinical vertebral fractures in postmenopausal females. Dr Alonso is also interested in pharmacogenomics applied to the treatment of osteoporosis, and she has recently been awarded with a grant from the Scottish Chief Scientist Office to perform genetic profiling to predict the response to treatment in patients with severe osteoporosis.

Dr Alonso is a member of the European Calcified Tissue Society (ECTS), the European Human Genetics Society and the British Bone Research Society. She was awarded the ECTS New Investigator Award in 2013, as well as other prizes at international conferences. More recently, she was elected as a member of the ECTS Academy, which represents the most talented postdoc researchers in the musculoskeletal field in Europe.

I graduated in Biology (2000) and obtained my PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2006) both at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Since 2007 I live and work in Oxford, at the Medical Research Council. My research has focused on unravelling and identifying pathomechanisms operating in neurodegenerative conditions, such us Huntington’s disease and ALS using mouse genetics, with the ultimate goal of developing therapeutic strategies. In relation to SRUK, I am a regular member since 2013. I am one of the first directive board members of the Oxford Constituency, founded in 2014, where I stayed for two years, and I am still today part of Working Group of the Oxford Constituency. I am interested in international collaborations and promoting network amongst scientists, in particular between Spain and UK. Therefore in January 2016 I became an active member of the Fellowship committee and the international relationships committee.

I graduated in Biology (2006) and I took an MSc in Genetics in the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2007). Later on, I obtained a PhD in Neurosciences in the Vall Hebron Research Institute (Barcelona) under the supervision of Dr Alfons Macaya Ruiz and Dr Patricia Pozo Rosich. My PhD was focused on understanding the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlying migraine and other neurologic paroxysmal disorders, using both human samples and preclinical models. Due to my interest in the pathophysiology of migraine, in 2014 I started as a postdoctoral researcher in the Headache Group at King’s College London, leaded by Prof Peter Goadsby and Dr Philip Holland, with a Fellowship of the International Headache Society. Since then my research has focused on deciphering the physiopathological mechanisms of migraine by using in vivo electrophysiology. I am a SRUK member since 2015 and a member of the scientific committee and of the Fellowships committee since 2016.

After obtaining a degree in Pharmacy at the University of Navarra (Spain), I carried out a PhD at the National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC, Madrid) under the supervision of Dr José Francisco Rodríguez Aguirre and Dr José Ruiz Castón where I studied and gained practical knowledge of structural aspects of viral capsids. Wishing to extend my knowledge in mechanisms of viral translation and virus gene expression, I joined Dr Ian Brierley’s laboratory (Division of Virology. University of Cambridge). Since October 2010, I have been trying to understand the implication of frameshifiting and readthrough in retro- and coronavirus and applying the novel technique of ribosome profiling to positive single stranded RNA viruses. I am a founding member of SRUK and from July 2014 to July 2016 I was the Director of the Cambridge Constituency. I have been actively involved in fostering international collaboration between SRUK and Spanish institutions since January 2015 and became the Director of the Department of International Collaborations in July 2016.

Name: María Jimenez Sanchez
Job position: MRC Research Fellow, Group Leader
Workplace: King´s College London

Scientific background: Maria is a MRC research fellow at the Maurice Wohl Neuroscience Institute at King´s College London. She is interested in studying the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration. Her newly established research group will explore the role of glial cells in these diseases in order to elucidate novel therapeutic targets. Until June 2016, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, where she moved after obtaining her PhD from the University Complutense in 2008.