Sara García Alonso facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sara García Alonso
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García Alonso in 2022
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| Born | 1989 (age 35–36) León, Spain
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| Education |
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| Occupation | Scientist |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (2019–) |
| Thesis | Anticuerpos conjugados a fármacos frente a receptores ErbB: Nuevas indicaciones y mecanismos de resistencia (2018) |
| Space career | |
| ESA reserve astronaut | |
| Selection | 2022 ESA Group |
Sara García Alonso (born in 1989) is a scientist from Spain. She studies cancer and is also a reserve astronaut for the European Space Agency (ESA). Since 2019, she has worked at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre. She helps discover new ways to fight cancer. In 2022, she was picked to be a reserve astronaut for the European Astronaut Corps.
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Becoming a Scientist
Sara García Alonso went to the University of León in Spain. In 2012, she earned a degree in biotechnology. This field uses living things to make new products or solve problems. A year later, in 2013, she got her master's degree. This degree focused on biomedical and biological research. It means she studied how the body works and how to find new medicines.
Studying Cancer
Sara continued her studies at the University of Salamanca. She worked as a research assistant for the Spanish National Research Council. Her main focus was on cancer medicine. In 2018, she earned her PhD. A PhD is the highest university degree. She got it with "cum laude" honors, which means she did excellent work. Her research looked at how certain cancer medicines work. She also studied why some cancers become resistant to these treatments. Her PhD work was so good that she won an award for it the next year.
Researching New Medicines
Since 2019, Sara has been a postdoctoral researcher. This means she is a scientist who has finished her PhD and is doing more advanced research. She works at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre. There, she leads a project to find new drugs for lung cancer and pancreatic cancer. Her research tries to find new ways to stop cancer cells from growing. She also took part in a training program in Madrid in 2021. Sara has also volunteered for the Spanish Association Against Cancer. This is a group that helps people with cancer.
Becoming an Astronaut
The European Space Agency (ESA) chose Sara García Alonso as a reserve astronaut in 2022. She was part of the 2022 ESA Astronaut Group. Sara and another astronaut candidate, Pablo Álvarez Fernández, are both from León, Spain. They are the first people from Spain chosen by ESA since Pedro Duque in 1992.
More than 22,500 people from all over Europe applied to be astronauts. Sara was one of the few chosen. As a reserve astronaut, she will keep her current job as a cancer researcher. She will start astronaut training if she is chosen for a future space mission. This means she could one day travel to space!
About Sara's Life
Sara García Alonso was born in León, Spain, in 1989. Besides her important work in science, she also has other interests. She has worked as a personal trainer. She has also been a nutrition coach. This means she helped people learn about healthy eating.
