Programas Científicos
Programa de Oncología Molecular
Grupo de Telómeros y Telomerasa
María A. Blasco Última actualización 23/03/2009
Maria A. Blasco (born Alicante, 1965) obtained her PhD in 1993 for her research on DNA polymerases at the Centro de Biología Molecular under the supervision of M. Salas. That same year, Blasco joined the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, (USA), as a Postdoctoral Fellow under the leadership of C. W. Greider. During this time, Blasco cloned one of the mammalian telomerase genes and generated the first telomerase knockout mouse.
In 1997 she returned to Spain to start her own research group at the Centro Nacional de Biotecnología in Madrid, where she continued her work on the development of mouse models for the study of telomerase in cancer and ageing. She moved to the CNIO in 2003 as Director of the Molecular Oncology Programme and Leader of the Telomeres and Telomerase Group.
Blasco has received the Swiss Bridge Award for Research in Cancer, the Josef Steiner Cancer Research Award, the EMBO Gold Medal, the Fundación Carmen and Severo Ochoa Award for Molecular Biology, the Rey Jaime I Basic Research Award and the Körber European Science Award. She also serves on the Editorial Board of several scientific journals, has been an elected EMBO Member since 2000, is a Young Global Leader, the World Economic Forum of the Academia Europea since 2006.
Maria also belongs to the Faculty 1000 (stem cells and regeneration) and was appointed to the EMBO Council in 2008. She has authored more than 100 original papers and made major contributions to the field of telomeres and telomerase and the role they play in ageing and cancer.
