Zampedri,María Cecilia

During the last 15 years, that I worked on scientific research and education, more than a decade has been devoted to studying aspects of human health disease through experimental modeling in zebrafish. I started my training in this area during my PhD at the Institute of Cell Physiology of the UNAM, and I specialized in genetic engineering techniques at the Laboratory of Genetics of the School of Medicine and Public Health of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, USA. During my work as a postdoctoral researcher at the Functional Genomics of Cancer laboratory of the National Institute of Genomic Medicine, from 2016 to 2021, I was dedicated to the study of the molecular aspects of cancer. There I developed the first platform in Mexico for modeling human cancer in zebrafish embryos by xenotransplantation. This tool has allowed the publication of about a dozen indexed scientific articles, with an impact on precision medicine. Since 2018 I have been part of the national system of researchers of CONAHCYT, as a national researcher at level I, I have a total of 17 scientific articles published in international impact journals. In 2021 I joined the Monterrey Institute of Technology with the proposal to establish a multidisciplinary platform for in vivo studies in the zebrafish model, with an impact on the promotion of local, as well as national and inter-institutional scientific research. Another of the short-term objectives of the Multidisciplinary Zebrafish Laboratory is to function as an external services unit that will have an impact on attracting funds for the institution. Currently, I serve as one of the two principal investigators of the Multidisciplinary Zebrafish Laboratory at the Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey-Mexico City Campus, through which we have had an impact on attracting students to science through projects focused on eco-toxicological studies and modeling of diseases of national interest. The laboratory has a zebrafish aquarium for research, nine interns, and scholarship students from different curricula of the Bioengineering career. We are currently carrying out three inter-institutional collaboration projects, one of which has promoted a collaboration agreement between ITESM and the National Polytechnic Institute for the study of new molecules; two intercampus collaboration projects, and three of our projects. Since 2023 I have been a researcher attached to the Molecular and Systems Bioengineering research group at ITESM. In addition to my research tasks, I participate in the assessment of undergraduate and graduate theses, and in the evaluation of professional exams, and I am a professor in the Biotechnology Engineering program at the ITESM in the areas of in vitro tissue culture, molecular biology, bioengineering, genetic engineering, and biotechnological processes. My objectives and interests include the development of educational strategies to increase the interest and motivation of undergraduate students in scientific research, through research projects aimed at the study of the impact of lifestyle and pollution on health, using eco-toxicological studies, and the modeling of diseases of national interest such as obesity, diabetes, and cancer, in zebrafish.