New Staff in Biological Sciences
Thu, 18 Sep 2014 15:20:00 BST
Along with new staff in Chemical Sciences and Pharmacy, the School of Applied Sciences has two new members of academic staff starting in the Department of Biological Sciences. Dr Imanol Arozarena and Dr Maria Pala started with the department in September 2014 and join an expanding and vibrant teaching and research team in biological sciences.
Dr Arozarena graduated in Biology at the University of Navarra, which is located in his hometown of Pamplona, Spain. From there he moved to the University of Cantabria, Santander, to study for his MSc before obtaining his PhD in 2003 under the supervision of Prof. Piero Crespo.
Imanol first moved the UK in 2005 taking up postdoctoral research positions at Imperial College and the Institute of Cancer Research in London. More recently he moved to the University of Manchester to work with Dr. Claudia Wellbrock on melanoma skin cancer cell invasion and response to targeted therapies. Dr Arozarena’s current research interests focus on the understanding of how cancer cells respond to both targeted treatments and chemotherapies with the aim of identifying markers predicting clinical response to anti-cancer drugs.
Dr Maria Pala was born in Nuoro, capital of the Barbagia region of the Italian island of Sardinia and obtained her Natural Sciences degree at University of Sassari. In October 2004 she was admitted to the PhD course for “Genetic and Biomolecular Science” at the University of Pavia under the supervision of Professor Antonio Torroni, one of the world leading researchers in Archaeogenetics. After successfully completing her PhD she continued to work in Pavia as a postdoctoral researcher before obtaining a Newton Fellowship at the University of Leeds.
Recruited to the University of Huddersfield in 2011 Maria originally took up a post as a Senior Research Fellow working with the Archaeogenetics Research Group headed by Prof Martin Richards. With her latest move into lecturing she joins the Biological Sciences academic teaching staff whilst maintaining her long standing research interests in archaeogenetics.
