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I graduated in Physics at the University of Barcelona
in 1997, and undertook my Ph.D. thesis in the same University, at the
Department of Physics. My research focused on experimental studies of
oil-air interfaces in porous media. The research in Barcelona
was combined with stays at the University
of Massachusetts and the University of Oslo. Due to my interest in
multidisciplinary research, during the last two years of my thesis I
attended a number of summer schools and workshops in biophysics.
I started my first postdoctoral stay upon completion of my Ph.D. thesis
in early 2003. Due to my interest in biophysics I joined the European
Training Network PHYNECS (Physics of Non-equilibrium Complex Systems) and
for two years I studied pattern formation in multicellular organisms. The
research, developed at the University
of Bayreuth (Germany), focused on the
regeneration process of the freshwater polyp Hydra. I gained experience
in a variety of experimental techniques, and fruitfully combined
genetics, developmental biology and physics.
I undertook my second postdoctoral stay at the Weizmann Institute
of Science, in Israel,
from mid 2005 to the end of 2008. There I changed topic to get a broader
picture of biophysics, and studied the connectivity in living neural
networks. My research was experimental, and among other goals I developed
a new technique to characterize neural connectivity using a percolation
approach. The research at Weizmann gave me a major experience in cell and
tissue culturing, as well as training in a variety of experimental
techniques in neuroscience, from activity analysis through fluorescence
imaging to multi-electrode arrays.
Since November 2008 I am a “Ramón y Cajal” research
fellow at the Faculty of Physics (Department ECM) of the University of Barcelona. I am currently setting
up the first biophysics lab in the Department. Research will be oriented
towards neurophysics and self-organization in multicellular organisms.
Research interests in biophysics
Neurophysics:
- Connectivity in neural networks.
- Learning and plasticity in neural circuits.
- Neuronal devices and computation.
- Implants.
- Stability of activity patterns and robustness of neural
circuits.
- Neurological disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.
Complexity in multicellular organisms:
- Strategies of self-organization and body maintenance.
- Pattern formation and emergence of symmetries during embryonic
development.
- Regeneration.
- Snowball Earth and evolution of early multicellular organisms.
Other:
- Noise and RNA dynamics in gene regulatory networks.
- Systems Biology.
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