Education

2019-2023: Senior Research Scientist, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA.

2011-2018: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA.

2003-2010: Ph.D. in Science. Instituto de Biotechnología, UNAM, México. Cuernavaca, Mor.

1998-2002: Undergraduate degree in Biology. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. México, D.F.

1995-1998: College. Colegio de Ciencias y Humanidades, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D.F.

Fellowships

2014-2016: Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in a Foreign Country. CONACYT. Mexico.

2011-2013: Pew Latin American Fellow. The Pew Charitable Trusts, USA

2003-2007: Ph.D in Science. CONACYT, Mexico.

Research Interests

I am interested in the genetic pathways that regulate mouse embryo gastrulation, the process whereby the three germ layers: ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm are generated. Cells at the primitive streak, the gastrulation hub, receive a combination of signals that makes them go through EMT and migrate within the mesoderm layer. We have developed mutant embryos in Axin1 and Axin2, components of the destruction complex of canonical Wnt-signaling. My current research is centered on understanding how these proteins modulate the Wnt responses and how Wnt interacts with other signaling pathways that converge at the streak to promote the specification of different embryo lineages. Our findings will be useful to the understanding of human pathologies that occur during embryo development. Mutations in Wnt components have been linked to cancer and tumor progression, and our findings will help to reveal how Wnt is connected with those pathologies. Mouse genetics and in vitro systems such as pluripotent stem cells are our primary research tools.