Biography

Dr Serrano (MCS) obtained her Biology Degree in 2002 at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain) and her PhD Degree in Biology in 2006 at the same university, receiving Honorary Awards in both cases. She was granted with a FPU predoctoral fellowship from the MEC of Spain (2003-2006), a postdoctoral fellowship for research abroad from the MICINN of Spain (2008-2010), a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral fellowship from the MINECO of Spain (2010-2013) and a Miguel Servet I postdoctoral fellowship from the ISCIII of Spain (2014-2017). In March 2017, MCS joined CSIC as a Tenured Scientist (Científico Titular) at the Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM-CSIC), integrating the Group of Materials for Medicine and Biotechnology. Her current research focuses on the design and development of novel biomaterials for biomedical applications, including a wide range of materials (ceramics, natural and synthetic polymers, hydrogels, graphene, nanoparticles) and applications (neural regeneration, osteoporosis, bone cancer). At the ICMM-CSIC, MCS has been responsible for the set-up and functioning of three cell culture laboratories (one of them being the first at the center back in 2011 and the last one being the first with biosafety level 2). To date, she has been principal investigator of 6 projects: PID2023-150170OB-I00 (250 k€); PID2020-113480RB-I00 (217 k€, Co-IP) from MICINN-Spain (2021-2024); PIE20160E060 (38 k€) from CSIC (2021-2023); MAT2016-78857R (121 k€) from MINECO-Spain (2016-2020), European Project H2020-FET-OPEN-RIA ByAxon (GA. 737116; 3,7M€ total budget, 210 k€ for CSIC team; PI-CSIC; 2017-2020) and Miguel Servet I MS13/00060 (120 k€) from ISCIII (2014-2017). Since january 2023, she is the coordinator of the Horizon Europe PathFinder project Piezo4Spine (3.5 M€; 2023-2026). In 2017, she was responsible for the creation of the Joint Research Unit of I+D+i with CSIC Design and development of biomaterials for neural regeneration of the Hospital Nacional de Parapléjicos (25/07/2017 - present; renewed in July 2020 and July 2023 based on good results and outcomes). Since March 2019, MCS is an Associate Editor of the journal "Bioactive Materials" (http://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/bioactive-materials/). MCS has co-authored over 80 publications in scientific journals (mainly Q1; areas of Materials Science, Biomaterials and Chemistry, Multidisciplinary), 6 book chapters and more than 100 communications to national and international conferences, besides being actively involved in outreach activities. She has co-edited the book: "Engineering Biomaterials for Neural Applications: Targetting Traumatic Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries", Elsevier 2022 (ISBN 978-3-030-81399-4). MCS has supervised 3 PhD theses and is currently supervising /co-supervising another 7. MCS has got a FAVOURABLE evaluation of 3 Sexenios de Investigación (2004-2021) by the Comisión Nacional Evaluadora de la Actividad Investigadora (MICYU; 06/06/2018) and 4 Quinquenios (Componente por Méritos Investigadores del Complemento Específico) (2003-2022) by CSIC (MINECO; 12/06/2018). Also, she is actively involved in outreach, dissemination and communication activities, having participated in over 50 initiatives.