Catalina Vallejo Giraldo. Image: Martina Regan
Biomedical engineer Dr Catalina Vallejo Giraldo has just received major European funding for a promising new brain cancer therapy.
The European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants support people who are deepening our understanding of the world, says EU Research Commissioner Iliana Ivanova.
“Their creativity is vital to finding solutions to some of the most pressing societal challenges.”
One of those pressing and complex challenges is the treatment of brain cancers.
In September, University of Galway’s Dr Catalina Vallejo Giraldo received an ERC Starting Grant of €1.5m to work on new treatments for brain cancers.
Vallejo Giraldo has developed a soft gel which contains a cancer-fighting drug that can weaken cancer cells and improve the effectiveness of drug-radiation therapy.
Vallejo Giraldo studied biomedical engineering at Universidad EIA and Universidad CES in Colombia, before completing a PhD with Dr Manus Biggs at the Cúram Research Centre for Medical Devices at the University of Galway. Her PhD focused on modifying implantable electrode systems to improve their performance for neural recording and deep brain stimulation in patients with neurological conditions such as dystonia and Parkinson’s disease. She then undertook postdoctoral research at Imperial College London.
She now works in the School of Engineering and in the Cúram research centre at the University of Galway.
Vallejo Giraldo describes her work as “at the intersection of biomaterials, brain mechanobiology and medicine”, with the aim of developing new, targeted brain therapies.
Tell us about your current research.
My current research is based on my previous work on the advancement of biomaterials for neural-electrode interfaces. Thanks to my earlier findings, my laboratory focuses on expanding the understanding of the fundamentals of cell-cell interactions in 3D cellular configurations to simulate specific brain diseases by applying physical and mechanical cues. This allows us to understand the critical changes in cell morphology, molecular markers and sugar profiles to inform the development of novel biomaterial platforms to target these diseases.
One current project in my laboratory, led by PhD student Akash Garhwal, involves developing and characterising a specific 3D cellular system called ‘assembloids’. These are mini brains in a dish to recreate models for traumatic brain injury in this case. They enable real-time evaluation of local cell forces, their relationship to cell shape changes and visualisation of protein expression, to inspire the development of new material to protect and recover cell function.
The recently awarded ERC Starting Grant will allow us to work on ‘TrapKill’, a functionalised biomaterial platform for trapping and killing cancer cells to render them susceptible to nuclei-DNA damage.
The development of this biomaterial device for the efficacy of current pharmacological and radiation therapies used to treat brain cancers is potentially of enormous value for treatment of other range of neuro-oncology disorders, many of which are degenerative in nature and associated with an unpredictable degradation in an individual’s response to chemo/radio therapy treatments.
Our proposed technology represents a change from conventional cancer treatments, combining approaches from biomaterial and cancer research to enhance the uptake of gold-standard therapies.
What inspired you to become a researcher?
My inspiration to become a researcher is deeply rooted in my upbringing. Coming from a family of dedicated scientists and academics – my mother, a bacteriologist, and my father, a pharmaceutical chemist – curiosity and discovery were constant companions in my childhood.
I have vivid memories of spending weekends in their labs, helping test new colours for cosmetics, studying bacteria under the microscope and having family scientific talks. Those early experiences ignited my passion for research and have been the foundation of my journey into the world of science.
What are some of the biggest challenges or misconceptions you face as a researcher in your field?
One of the biggest challenges in research is learning to approach every possibility with an open mind, even when the path forward isn’t clear. It takes time and patience to develop this mindset, but it’s the key to true discovery.
Staying flexible and embracing uncertainty can feel challenging, but it’s through this process that the most meaningful insights emerge and hatch. If we want to make a lasting impact, we have to trust that the journey – though sometimes challenging – will be worth it.
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