Biography

From 2014, Sonia Guil leads the “Regulatory RNA and chromatin” research team, first at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, and from 2019 at the IJC. Dr. Guil has been investigating the functions of RNA in gene expression regulation and specifically the role that noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) play in disease for more than 15 years. After completing her PhD at the Centre for research and Development (CID-CSIC, Barcelona), which addressed the control of alternative splicing of the H-RAS oncogen, she was awarded an EMBO long-term post-doctoral fellowship and joined Dr. Caceres’ lab at the Medical Research Council in Edinburgh (UK). There, she studied the regulatory action of RNA binding proteins upon stress stimuli, and, particularly, their role as controllers of specific microRNA biogenesis. Following her post-doctoral stage in the UK, she was awarded a “Ramon y Cajal” Grant and moved back to Barcelona to start her own projects as an independent young investigator. She was enrolled in the Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), under the direction of Dr. Esteller, where she broadened her research interests to include the epigenetic control as a major determinant of ncRNA-mediated regulation in transcriptional and post-transcriptional stages in both normal and pathological conditions. Since 2008, she has received funding from both public and private agencies to carry out research involving the study of the emerging roles of both short and long ncRNAs. In her group, they combine a battery of biochemical and global genomic approaches, both in vitro and in vivo to dissect mechanisms of gene expression regulation with the participation of ncRNAs, with the ultimate goal of contributing to devise the best RNA-based therapeutic strategies in different pathological settings.