The International Gap Junction Conference (IGJC) is held every two years alternating primarily between Europe and North America. The meeting brings together diverse international experts in the study of connexins, pannexins and innexins in different fields. In 2022 it was organized for the first time in Spain by an Executive Committee led by María Mayán.
Twitter: https://x.com/IGJC2022
For more information, please visit: https://cpe.vt.edu/igjc2024.html
ORCID ID 0009-0000-5520-4578
PhD student
Rebeca Martínez Martínez, holds a degree in Biology from the University of Santiago de Compostela and has an interdisciplinary Master’s in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, jointly offered by the universities of Vigo and Santiago de Compostela. She completed her master’s thesis titled «Fabrication of Polyethylenimine Polymeric Nanoparticles for the Biodetection of Tumor Markers» under the supervision of Dr. Gustavo Bodelón González at the Functional NanoBioMaterials Research Group (FunNanoBio) at CINBIO (University of Vigo). Currently, she has started her doctoral program in Nanoscience and Biomedicine at the University of Vigo as part of the CellCom group where she will carry out her doctoral thesis under the supervision of Dr. María D. Mayán.
PhD Student
Eva earned her Biology degree in 2022 and obtained her Master’s degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics in 2023 from the University of A Coruña. She was awarded a collaboration scholarship from the Ministry of Education, as well as a predoctoral contract from AECC and joined the CellCOM group as a PhD student, in collaboration with Aurora Durán-Gómez’s MitoPhenomics lab at CIMUS (University of Santiago de Compostela). Her research focuses on investigating the role of connexins and mitochondria in triple negative breast cancer and melanoma to develop novel therapeutic approaches addressing drug resistance.
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ORCID: 000-0002-6275-1657
Raquel was born in Carballo, A Coruña. She joined group as a PhD student in June 2011. She was working in the Vegetal Phsysiology Research Group at the University of A Coruña with Dr. José Díaz before obtaining her bachelor degree in Biology in 2011 from the Faculty of Sciences, University of A Coruña. Raquel obtained her Master´s Degree in 2012 and her PhD in April 2016. She obtained a Cibber-bbn fellowship in 2011 and a PhD fellowship from A Xunta de Galicia in 2012 for three years. During this three years as a PhD student, she visited two different laboratories thanks to the traveling fellowships from University of A Coruña & Inditex. The first stay was in 2013 in Christian Naus laboratory at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada). She did a second stay in Luc Leybaert lab in 2015 at the University of Gent (Belgium). So far, she is co-author of 5 research articles. She is member of Spanish Rheumatology Society (SER) and Spanish Biochemical and Molecular Biology Society. (SEBBM). She moved to Norway in June 2016 to Norwegian University of Science and Thecnology.
She moved back to Spain in 2022 to join Cientisol and since April 2023 she is a postdoctoral fellow at NASASbiotech company in Santiago de Compostela.
Alba was born in A Coruña. She joined the group as a PhD student in February 2016. She obtained her degree in Biology in 2012 from University of Salamanca and her Master’s degree in Neuroscience in 2014 from the University of Basque Country. Alba was working in the role of connexins in the development and progression of skin-related diseases. She moved to Napoles with a Marie Skłodowska-Curie action (MSCA).
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2970-4015
Postdoctoral fellow
Amanda Guitián Caamaño earned her B.S in Biology in June 2017 from the University of A Coruña, and her master’s degree in Biomedical Research from the same university within the CellCOM group. She decided to continue her research career in the field of connexins within the same group in order to study the role of connexins and pannexins in tissue regeneration and cancer. She is involved in a project to develop new therapeutic strategies in order to improve the efficacy of therapies to those patients who develop resistance to treatments in metastatic diseases.
She is developing her doctoral thesis since 2018, and during this time, she has actively participated in several projects of the group acquiring knowledge and experience in several techniques, since she became an expert exploring the use of exosomes as nanovehicles for drug delivery. Her results are presented in several national and international conferences in the area of connexins, inflammation, tissue regeneration and cancer. She is co-author of two paper published in Q1 journals, has another papers (as co-first author) in preparation and a patent registered. Also, she carried out two predoctoral stays in leading centers at a national and international level, CIB Margarita Salas in Madrid, and in MRC-LMB Cambridge, UK.
In divulgation area, se has participated in various scientific outreach activities (e.g. primary schools, AECC events, etc), as well as participated in the organization of the annual IYI meeting and Science Xpression conferences since 2018. Besides, she is ambassador of ASEICA, assiduously participating in the informative and scientific projects promoted by this association; as well as actively collaborating with other associations such as SEBBM.
Amanda moved to the Conway Institute at University College of Dublin to join Dr. Fiona Freeman lab as a postdoctoral fellow.
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2970-4015
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1291-6775
Postdoctoral Fellow
Marina obtained her degree in Biology in 2015 and her Master’s Degree in Biomedical Research in 2016 from the University of A Coruña. She was awarded a predoctoral FPU contract and joined CellCOM team as a PhD student in November 2016. After defending her PhD thesis in 2022 she remained in the group as a postdoctoral researcher. Her work is focused on the role of connexins in breast cancer development, interaction with the tumour microenvironment and resistance to emerging therapies. She also studies the effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy in wound healing and skin repair. Her research has been selected for oral and poster presentations in regional, national and international conferences. She is coauthor of 1 research article (4 more articles in preparation) and inventor of two international patents and one image analysis software. Her results in the field of oncology have been awarded the «Francisco Guitián Ojea» Galician Technology Transfer Prize by the RAGC. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1291-6775; ResearcherID: R-1446-2016; ResearchGate profile.
She moved to Strasbourg University to join Dr Françoise Dantzer lab as a Postdoctoral fellow.
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0347-7053
Postdoctoral Fellow
Adrián Varela-Vázquez is a postdoctoral researcher affiliated to the CellCOM research group at INIBIC and the University of A Coruña. He joined the group in September 2014. He obtained his degree in biology in 2014 and his master’s degree in biomedical research in 2015 with the highest grade of honours. He obtained his PhD Biology by the University of A Coruña in 2021 with the highest grade of Cum Laude. He studies the role of connexins in tumour progression and drug resistance in BRAF-driven tumours. He is author of 10 publications (2 as first author),1 manuscript under preparation (as first author) and one European patent (PCT/EP20382883). His research has been presented at several national and international conferences in connexin research, cancer, and exosomes. He visited two labs at Ramón y Cajal Institute for Health Research (Madrid, Dr. Luis Barrio) and in the European Institute of Chemistry and Biology (IECB) in Bordeaux (Dr. David Santamaria). He obtained a postdoctoral fellowship from Xunta de Galicia-GAIN in 2022 to join Victoria Sanz-Moreno lab at Barts Cancer Centre (Queen Mary University, London) in 2023. He is member of the Sociedad Española de Bioquimica y Biología Molecular (SEBBM), Asociación Española de Investigación sobre el Cáncer (ASEICA), European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) and International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV). ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0347-7053; Researcher ID: M-5853-2014
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0281-0678
Postdoctoral Fellow
Marta Varela-Eirín is a postdoctoral fellow who joined the CellCOM group in 2013. She obtained her degree in Biology in 2013 (with honours), her master degree in Biomedical Research in 2014, and defended her international doctoral thesis in 2018. She is trying to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in the development and progression of age-related diseases such as osteoarthritis, in order to find new therapeutic targets. During her PhD, she has received a fellowship from “Deputación de A Coruña” in 2014, followed by a fellowship grant from “Xunta de Galicia” in 2015 (ED481A-2015/188). While she was completing her PhD in 2016, she has also received a travel fellowship from “Universidade de A Coruña” in order to do a 3-month internship at the UCD Conway Flow Cytometry Core at the University College Dublin (Ireland). After successfully defending her thesis in late 2018, she obtained a competitive fellowship from “Xunta de Galicia” in 2019 (IN606B-2019/004) to work as postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Marco Demaria at the European Research Institute for the Biology of Ageing (ERIBA) in Groningen, The Netherlands. There, she tried to decipher new molecular mechanisms of cellular senescence in age-related diseases and the potential involvement and connexin and pannexin-channels in the inflammatory phenotype of senescent cells. Since July 2022, she moved back to Spain to join CellCOM as a postdoctoral fellow to continue working in the role of connexins/pannexins in inflammation in age-related diseases. She is member of the Spanish Rheumatology Society, the Spanish Biochemical and Molecular Society, and the Spanish Society for the Bone and Miner Metabolisms Research. She supervises internship, master and PhD students. She co-authored 14 articles (8 of them as first author), with 3 more articles under preparation and a h index of 9. She is also co-inventor of 3 patents. Her results were selected for oral and poster presentation at several international scientific conferences, with her work being selected as a Star Award at the International Gap Junction Conference 2019 in Victoria, Canada. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0281-0678
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4495-2332
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Paula Carpintero joined the INIBIC group as a PhD student in 2011. She obtained her degree in biology in 2011, her master degree in 2012 and her PhD degree in 2015. The results obtained during her PhD project have been presented in different national and international conferences and seminars. She was also awarded with a short-term fellowship from Fundación Barrié (A Coruña) to visit the proteomic facilities at Yale University-USA for 3 months. She moved to London-United Kingdom in 2017 to the Queen Mary University under the supervision of Dr. O’Loghlen for her postdoctoral training. During her postdoctoral training in the UK her results were selected for oral and poster presentation at different international conferences. Since June 2019 she moved back to Spain and joined the group as a postdoctoral fellow from Xunta de Galicia. She is co-author of 7 research articles, 1 literature revision and inventor of an international patent. Also she has supervised several summer and master thesis students. She is member of the Spanish Rheumatology Society, the Spanish Biochemical and Molecular Biology Society and the Spanish Proteomic Society. ORCID ID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4495-2332
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4925-1375
PhD Student
Alex was born in Ferrol, A Coruña. He joined the INIBIC as Master’s Student in September 2020 and he joined CellCOM group as PhD student in 2021. He obtained his Biology Degree in 2019 from the Faculty of Science, University of A Coruña and his Master’s Degree in Biomedical Science in 2021 for which he obtained an Extraordinary Mention. He studies the therapeutic potential of a new generation of hemichannels inhibitors in in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo models for the treatment of inflammatory joint diseases. His research work has been selected for poster and oral presentations in international conferences. He co-authored 4 research articles and participated in the registration of a patent. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4925-1375
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5827-5494
PhD Student
Alexander Carneiro joined CellCOM group as a PhD student in September 2021. He completed his degree in Biology in 2020 and finished his master degree in Molecular & Cell Biology in 2021, for which he obtained an Extraordinary Mention. He performed the master degree workplacement/internships in CellCOM group during April-May 2021. Now he studies the role of connexins and pannexins in Melanoma and Brain Metastasis (BM) looking for a therapeutic approach. In the last year, he participated in 4 posters and 2 oral presentations in a total of 6 congresses, 5 of which were international. ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5827-5494
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ever since his first steps in science, Eloy have been involved in different research projects. During the 4 year of his undergraduate studies, he joined a research group at the University of Murcia, working on the development of new therapies to treat infections by Candida albicans. The focus of his work was the characterisation of the trehalose cellular pathway, through the production of loss-of-function mutants of the fundamental enzymes of this cellular pathway. As a result, they were able to identify two relevant enzymes in this pathway, whose in-depth study will allow the development of new strategies for the treatment of these infections.
For his Master thesis, Eloy investigated the development of new diagnostic methods for systemic candidiasis. The study focused on the characterisation of a monoclonal antibody specific for detecting C.albicans, as well as the identification of the target of this antibody by mass spectrometry. As a result, Eloy develop an efficient and reliable methodology for the identification of systemic infections caused by C.albicans, as well as the identification of a set of peptidoglycans, whose in-depth analysis could be of great use for the development of new approaches for the diagnosis of this type of infections.
More recently, Eloy obtained his PhD in biomedicine from the Catholic University of Valencia, being the main topic of his doctoral thesis the search for biomarkers associated with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). For this purpose, he focused on the analysis of the differential expression of microRNAs in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and extracellular vesicles, using high-density microarray technology and RT-qPCR. In addition, the isolation, morphological and functional characterization of extracellular vesicles derived from the plasma of these patients, samples obtained from the UK ME/CFS Biobank. As a result of this research he was able to identify biomarkers unique to this disease, which will allow the development of the first diagnostic test and disease model of ME/CFS. This research was funded by the MEA (ME Association, UK), and also has a grant sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Mundipharma.
Currently, Eloy is a postdoctoral fellow who joined the CellCOM group in May 2022 at INIBIC. He is trying to identify new functions of connexins in tumour progression.
During this last stage of his scientific career, Eloy have acquired skills related to data mining and statistical data analysis using R, as well as extensive knowledge in omics or cell culture techniques, and mastered other tools in the field of bioinformatics. These skills have been very useful in his day-to-day work to find effective solutions to the problems that have emerged, resulting 8 research articles published in high impact journals such as Scientific Reports, Frontiers in Medicine and participating as a presenter in international conferences, such as International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV).
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0451-7862
Research Assistant
Raúl Fontelo Rodríguez is currently a Research Assistant at CellCOM research group. Raúl has graduated in Industrial Electronics Engineering at the University of Vigo, Spain in 2013. He proceeded to a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Barcelona and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain, which was successfully concluded in 2015. The dissertation studies were developed in the Biomaterials, Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering group of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, where he worked in a selective therapy for osteosarcoma using an atmospheric plasma jet, which resulted in a publication.
Later in 2016, he started his PhD in Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells at the Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics Research Group (3Bs), i3Bs, University of Minho, Portugal, where he developed his thesis in the field of block copolymer nanopatterns and their use in different applications such as antithrombotic or bactericidal biomaterials as well as selective surfaces for the adhesion of osteosarcoma vs healthy cells and promoters of osteogenic differentiation.
Scientifically, Raúl has contributed with 4 peer-reviewed papers in international journals (plus 2 submitted). Furthermore, he has participated in many international conferences with 2 oral communications and 12 poster presentations. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0451-7862
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7074-0790
PhD Student
Marta Barturen is a predoctoral researcher at CellCOM Research Group, INIBIC, in A Coruña. She joined the team in September 2021. She obtained her degree in Biology from the University of A Coruña in 2020 and her master’s degree in Molecular, Celular and Genetics Biology in 2021. She studies the role of connexins in metastatic breast cancer, as well as CDK4/6 inhibitors and new therapeutic strategies. Her research has been selected for oral and poster presentation in many national and international conferences. ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7074-0790
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3187-5913
PhD Student
Iñaki López Díaz is a PhD student at the CellCOM research group. He finished his degree in Biology in 2020. During these years, he was awarded with 2 prizes for Academic Excellence from Xunta de Galicia. He obtained his master´s degree in 2021. During this time, he did his master practices at the CellCOM research group. Nowadays he is studying the role of cell-to-cell communication in aging and cancer. He has already presented a poster in an international congress and has been one of the authors in several posters and oral communications in national and international congresses. Also, he has contributed as co-author in a paper about OA. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3187-5913