Núria López Bigas facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Núria López-Bigas
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Núria López Bigas
1975 Monistrol de Montserrat (Barcelona), Spain
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| Alma mater | University of Barcelona |
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| Institutions | Pompeu Fabra University Institute for Research in Biomedicine |
Núria López Bigas is a Spanish scientist who studies biology. She is an expert in medical genetics, which looks at how our genes affect our health. She also uses computers to understand biology, a field called computational biology and bioinformatics.
Núria is a professor at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain. She also leads a research team at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine. Her team uses computer methods to study the genes of cancer. This helps them understand how cancer grows.
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Núria's Journey in Science
Núria López-Bigas earned her Ph.D. in biology from the University of Barcelona. For her Ph.D., she studied the genes that cause people to be born with hearing loss.
After her Ph.D., she moved to Cambridge, UK. There, she worked at the European Bioinformatics Institute. She used computers to study genes and how they work.
Later, she returned to Barcelona. She helped with an important project called ENCODE. This project aimed to understand all the parts of the human genome.
In 2006, Núria joined Pompeu Fabra University. In 2011, she became an ICREA research professor. ICREA is a special program for top scientists in Catalonia, Spain. In 2016, her lab moved to the Institute for Research in Biomedicine. She now leads the Biomedical Genomics Research Group there.
Discovering Cancer Genes
Núria López-Bigas's lab works to find genes that cause cancer cells to grow out of control. These are called cancer driver genes.
When a tumor grows, some changes in genes help the cancer become stronger. Her team has created computer tools to find these important changes. They look for patterns in the gene changes found in tumors.
IntOGen: A Tool for Cancer Research
One of their big achievements is creating IntOGen. This is a special website that helps cancer researchers. It brings together information about cancer driver genes from many different studies. This helps doctors and scientists make better choices about treating cancer.
Cancer Genome Interpreter: Guiding Treatments
Her lab also helps with something called precision medicine. This means finding the best treatment for each person's cancer. They use computer tools to find changes in a patient's tumor genes. These changes can show which medicines might work best.
They made another online tool called the Cancer Genome Interpreter. This tool helps identify gene changes that can be targeted with specific treatments.
Núria has written over 100 scientific papers about her work.
Awards and Recognitions
Núria López-Bigas has received many important awards for her research.
In 2020, she won the XI Banco Sabadell Foundation Award for Biomedical Research. This award gives 50,000 euros to a promising scientist in Spain. She was recognized for her new computer methods to study cancer genes.
She also received the Proffered Paper Award in 2014. This was at a meeting for the European Association for Cancer Research. In 2012, she won the Catalan National Award for Young Research Talent.
In 2021, she was chosen as a Fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology. This is a high honor for scientists who use computers to study biology.
See also
In Spanish: Núria López-Bigas para niños
- Basel Computational Biology Conference
- Oncogenomics
- Linker histone H1 variants
