Miriam Vazquez Segoviano
Academic and Work Experience Prior to Sept 2022 Programme Start
I completed my bachelor’s degree in biotechnology engineering with a minor in molecular biology at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico. During my degree, I undertook a year internship in Dr. Dario Lemos Lab at the Harvard Institutes of Medicine and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Here, I developed kidney organoids from patient-derived stem cells to model tuberous sclerosis complex, a rare degenerative disease.
PhD Programme- Year 1- MRes and Project Rotations
During my first year in the programme, I worked on three exciting projects in different labs:
1. The Houart Lab: Here, I investigated the altered subcelullar distribution of a truncated protein and changes in mitochondria dynamics in a zebrafish model to study FOXG1 syndrome, a severe neurodevelopmental disorder in humans.
2. The Andoniadou Lab: In my second rotation, I studied novel transcription factors involved in restoring the regenerative potential of stem cells in the pituitary gland by combining loss of function experiments in a primary mouse culture with single cell RNA sequencing analysis.
3. The Sancho Lab: During my last rotation I studied whether expression of a deubiquitinating enzyme in pancreatic organoids was able to improve iPSC-to-beta-differentiation which could be exploited to improve strategies for beta cell generation for the treatment of diabetes.
PhD Programme- Years 2 to 4 - Doctoral Studies
For my PhD, I have chosen to join Dr. Cynthia Andoniadou’s lab to decipher the factors and molecular networks regulating stem cell fate in the pituitary gland.
The pituitary gland is often referred as the master regulator of the endocrine system, as it controls key physiological processes in our body such as metabolism, reproduction and growth by the production and secretion of different hormones. Ultimately, all hormone-secreting cells in the pituitary arise from a population of tissue-specific stem cells which are maintained in a quiescent state during adult homeostatic conditions. Despite their importance, regulation of pituitary stem cells remains poorly understood.
Further characterisation of molecular mechanisms and factors driving pituitary stem cell fate may open the door toward regenerative approaches and are highly relevant to the understanding of the underlying causes of pathologies such as hypopituitarism and pituitary tumours. The first step towards exploiting and facilitating future pituitary therapeutic approaches lies in restoring the regenerative capacity of this population.
