Júlia Rodríguez-Comas

Júlia Rodríguez Comas, PhD in Biomedicine (Universitat de Barcelona). I am a co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Sycai Technologies. The main objective of Sycai Technologies is to bring the latest technological advances in the field of medical image recognition and artificial intelligence to empower radiologists and improve the quality of life of patients. As a Scientific Director I am responsible for assessing evidence-based clinical studies to implement translational effectiveness research in the field of artificial Intelligence for medical diagnostics and to manage all scientific Research & Development operations (leading scientific research, coordinating projects and establishing strategic partnership & alliances).
As a biomedical researcher I have dedicated my scientific career to the study of the molecular mechanisms involved in the development and progression of type 2 diabetes (T2D). The aim of my PhD thesis was to unravel the mechanisms that lead to pancreatic β-cell dysfunction, focusing on islet inflammation and stress-induced β-cell failure and identifying potential strategies to recover β-cell function. Part of this project was carried out in collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Grifols, which allowed me to deepen to the healthcare industry.
As a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), I have developed an “organ-on-chip” device by combining three-dimensional (3D) engineered skeletal muscle and pancreatic tissue as a tool to study metabolic diseases in vitro.
Since 2015 I have been a guest lecturer and conference speaker on a wide range of high school and postgraduate courses at different universities and schools.