Special Guest Lecture – Elisabeth Castellanos, Ph.D.

On 15 November 2023, our University will be visited by Elisabeth Castellanos, Ph.D. – Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) in Barcelona (Spain). The host of the event will be Prof. Arkadiusz Piotrowski – International Research Agenda.

At 11:00 A.M. Elisabeth Castellanos, Ph.D. will present a lecture entitled Merlin-deficient iPSCc as an in vitro model system for studying the molecular pathogenesis of NF2-related schwannomatosis in a hybrid format: online link and in the seminar room at CMN (CMN_2/D/05-B).

During the lecture, Expert will discuss the process of generating and characterizing stem cell lines with NF2 inactivation in merlin-deficient cultures. In addition, she will talk about the characteristic features and pathogenesis of NF2-related schwannomatosis.

Speaker’s profile

Elisabeth Castellanos, Ph.D. led the Clinical Genomic Research (CGR) group. CGR is a renowned diagnostic laboratory for hereditary cancer predisposing syndromes, such as neurofibromatosis-schwannomatosis (NF-SWN) and other hereditary diseases, in Catalonia and Spain, recognized as a member of the Spanish Reference Center of Phakomatoses (CSUR). Castellanos, Ph.D. who holds a Ph.D. in Genetics (2010), specializes in hereditary cancer field, particularly in NF-SWN and related conditions, and has played an integral role in the development and implementation of genetic tests based on genomic techniques, with a strong emphasis on massive parallel sequencing.

Furthermore, she has developed a translational research activity centered on tumors originating from peripheral nerve tissue associated with NF-SWN. Currently, Castellanos, Ph.D. serves as a collaborating professor at the Open University of Catalonia University (UOC – Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) and Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain (UAB), coordinates the NF-EURONET consortium, is a member of CSUR accreditation board and European Reference Network (ERN) GENTURIS, and co-leads the Variant Curation Expert Panel (VCEP) at ClinGen, an international expert group dedicated to developing clinical guidelines for the pathogenicity classification of NF-SWN-related variants, under the auspices of National Institutes of Health (USA).