Rocío Gallego-DUrán

Rocío Gallego-Durán currently holds a Sara Borrell post-doctoral position in the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS), in the SeLiver Group led by Prof. Romero-Gómez. She graduated from the University of Seville with a Bachelor´s degree in Biology, and in 2017 she completed her PhD in Molecular Biology and Clinical Research, Cum Laude with the International Mention, and she further obtained the Doctoral Extraordinary Award from the University of Seville in 2019. Rocío has a longstanding research interest in the development of non-invasive biomarkers for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) diagnosis, as well as new therapeutic strategies with potential to be transferred to the bedside mainly based on epigenetic approaches. This is evidenced by the (co)-authorship of 53 peer-reviewed original papers and reviews, 21 in first decile and 13 in first quartile. Rocío became a principal investigator of two competitive-funded projects, one funded by Consejería de Salud de la Junta Andalucía and the most recent by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, all regarding novel biomarker discovery and therapies for NAFLD in both human and preclinical models. Besides, she is co-investigator in 11 national and international competitive-funded projects. She is also teaching in the Master of Biomedicine from University of Seville, and currently directing one doctoral thesis, with defense date on 2021. She has been an honorary research associate for one year and a half in the Liver Failure Group, led by Prof. Rajiv Jalan, funded by four different fellowships, one year as a psotdoctoral researcher. The dynamic environment in London allowed her to improve her practical skills through the learning of novel techniques that were subsequently implemented in her research group to the rest of the fellows, indicating the capacity and commitment of her young leadership, as well as her problem solving and communication abilities. These stays opened one new translational research line and increased her connections with some of the main stakeholders of the community, paving the way for continued collaborations that are still ongoing, whereas novel projects are currently emerging. Outside of a laboratory setting, Rocío was the coordinator of the Spanish Registry for NAFLD (HEPAmet) for a total of 5 years, supported by AEEH. She is an active member of several scientific associations and networks (AEEH, EASL, AASLD,CIBEREHD), and has been invited speaker in different scientific conferences, as well as rewiever for a number of 8 peer-reviewed journals.