Andrea Acebes-Huerta

Andrea Acebes obtained her Licenciatura degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from
the Faculty of Biochemistry (University of Oviedo, Spain) in 2009. During her bachelor studies,
she was awarded with an Erasmus Exchange Grant with which she stayed at Prof. Vincenzo
Russo ́s Lab (San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy), participating in a research project focusing on
gene therapy. In 2010, she obtained her MSc degree in Cancer Research (University Institute
of Oncology – University of Oviedo, Spain; Project supervisor: Dr. Segundo González).
Next, I joined the Tumor Immunology Research Group as a PhD student and obtained her PhD
degree with International mention (EMBO short-term fellowship at G. Martino Hospital, Sicily,
Italy) in December 2015; (Thesis entitled: “Novel strategies to activate the antitumor immune
response mediated by Natural Killer cells”; Directors: Dr. Segundo González and Dr. Alejandro
López Soto; thesis awarded with a honorable mention by the Royal Academy of Medicine of
Asturias) with several relevant international publications.
After obtaining the PhD degree, I joined the Ocular Surface and Inflammation Research
Group led by Prof. Jesús Merayo (Ophthalmology Research Foundation, Fernández-Vega
Ophthalmological Institute, Oviedo, Spain) as a postdoctoral researcher. During my stay I
gained valuable experience in advanced therapeutic techniques applied to human corneal
tissues, focusing on the role of the inflammatory response in corneal nerve regeneration after
injury (M Persinal-Medina, …, A Acebes-Huerta et al. Xeno-free approach for the expansion
of human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells for ocular therapies Exp Eye Res. 2020
Nov 15;108358. doi: 10.1016/j.exer.2020.108358)
Currently, I am postdoctoral researcher at the Platelet Research Lab (supervisor: Laura
Gutiérrez) that belongs to the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Principado de Asturias
(ISPA), since July 2018, thanks to a competitive Postdoctoral Institutional Grant (ISPA
Intramural Call 2018). As part of the Platelet Research Group, I am currently leading a research
line focused on the development of novel platelet-derived bio-products with the aim of improved
their applications in and beyond regenerative medicine, considering the plethora of functions
assigned to platelets in the recent years, and their potential use as diagnostic/prognostic
markers.
In addition, I participate in two main ongoing projects: the first one related to the study
of megakaryopoiesis in Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP) patients (project co-financed by
AMGEN), and the second one related to megakariopoiesis characterization using cell
sorting and multi-Omics approaches, with the aim to better understand the complexity
of megakaryocyte differentiation and platelet production in humans. (Acebes-Huerta et al.
manuscript submitted to JoVE)
Of note, since July 2019, I am Co-Principal Investigator of a project entitle “Characterization
of bioactive factors in Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP): Correlation with clinical outcome in
Maxillofacial surgery” financed by ISPA and Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias (HUCA)
in collaboration with the Department of Maxillofacial Surgery (HUCA) and Centro Comunitario
de Sangre y Tejidos de Asturias (CCSTA).