PhD Aida Llucià-Valldeperas,
Research:
I am a biotechnologist and a biomedical engineer and my research was based on cardiac tissue engineering, cell culture, and electromechanical stimulation. I have worked with several cell types and matrices, trying to develop an accurate myocardial model with my tools (cells, hydrogels and scaffolds).
Currently, I am working on Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) within the Phaedra Consortia but my work is mostly based on the cardiac field. PAH originates in the lungs, but patients mostly die of right heart failure because the right ventricle cannot adapt to the increased workload. Therefore, I aim to develop an in vitro right ventricle using the Engineered Heart Tissue technology and patient-derived cells. In parallel, I try to find new biomarkers to predict clinical prognosis in PAH patients, and validate them in vitro and in vivo.
Curriculum Vitae:
I am a biotechnologist and I completed my PhD in Biomedicine (Biomedical Engineering) from the University of Barcelona (Spain) under the supervision of Prof. Bayes-Genis at Health Sciences Research Institute Germans Trias and Pujol (Badalona, Spain). I was working on Cardiac Tissue Engineering approaches to restore myocardial infarction injuries. Meanwhile, I went twice to Prof. Vunjak-Novakovic laboratory at Columbia University (New York, USA) as a visiting fellow to study new cardiac tissue engineering techniques and induced pluripotent stem cells.
Afterwards, I visited the MERLN Institute (Maastricht University) for a brief stay to learn about biofabrication procedures. Finally, in 2017 I joined the Goumans group as a postdoc researcher to develop a 3D model to study right heart failure in Pulmonary Hypertension within the Phaedra Consortium (Hartstichting), and in close collaboration with Amsterdam UMC.
Publications
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• Electro-mechanical Conditioning of Adult Progenitor Cells Improves Recovery of Cardiac Function After Myocardial Infarction.
Llucià-Valldeperas A, Soler-Botija C, Gálvez-Montón C, Roura S, Prat-Vidal C, Perea-Gil I, Sanchez B, Bragos R, Vunjak-Novakovic G, Bayes-Genis A.
Stem Cell Trans Med. 2017. doi: 10.5966/sctm.2016-0079.
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• Unravelling the effects of mechanical physiological conditioning on cardiac adipose tissue-derived progenitor cells in vitro and in silico.
Llucià-Valldeperas A, Bragos R, Soler-Botija C, Roura S, Gálvez-Montón C, Prat-Vidal C, Perea-Gil I, Bayes-Genis A.
Sci Rep. 2018. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-18799-5.
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• Preclinical safety evaluation of allogeneic iPS cell-based therapy in a swine model of myocardial infarction .
Gálvez-Montón C, Soler-Botija C, Iborra-Egea O, Diaz-Guemes I, Martí M, Iglesias-Garcia O, Prat-Vidal C, Crisóstomo V, Llucià-Valldeperas A, Perea-Gil I, Roura S, Sanchez Margallo FM, Raya Á, Bayés-Genís A.
Tissue Eng Part C Methods. 2017. doi: 10.1089/ten.TEC.2017.0156.
