Tomás Alarcón

Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (CRM)

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

I obtained my PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Barcelona in 2000. After that I spent many wonderful years working as a postdoc at the University of Oxford, UK (2001-2003), University College London, UK (2003-2006), and Imperial College London, UK (2006-2009). I briefly held a senior researcher and group leader position at BCAM, Bilbao, Spain (2009-2010), after which I moved the Centre Recerca Matematica where I lead the Computational & Mathematical Biology Group. I have also held visiting fellowships at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, IIMAS (UNAM, Mexico DF), and OCCAM (University of Oxford, UK). In October 2015, I was appointed to an ICREA Research Professorship at the Centre de Recerca Matematica.


Research interests

My research focuses on Mathematical Biology, particularly in multi-scale and stochastic modelling of tumour growth and tumour-induced angiogenesis. The main aim of my research is to understand the mechanisms involved in drug resitance and formulate therapeutic strategies which are robust to such mechanisms. Although tumour growth is my main field of specialisation, I am interested in other areas of Mathematical Biology, particularly regarding the effects of random fluctuations in cell regulatory systens and population dynamics, robustness and evolvability, and the stochastic dynamics of HIV-1-infection in patients treated with potent anti-retroviral therapy.

Selected publications

– Menendez JA, Corominas-Faja B, Cuyas E, Garcia MG, Fernandez-Arroyo S, Fernandez AF, Joven J, Fraga MF & Alarcon T 2016, ‘Oncometabolic Nuclear Reprogramming of Cancer Stemness’, Stem Cell Reports, 6, 3, 273 – 283.

– Gonzalez-Guerrico AM, Espinoza I, Schroeder B, Park CH,  Mohan C, Khurana A, Corominas-Faja B, Cuyas E, Alarcon T, Kleer C, Menendez JA, Lupu R 2016, ‘Suppression of endogenous lipogenesis induces reversion of the malignant phenotype and normalized differentiation in breast cancer’, Oncotarget, 7, 71151-71168.

– Menendez JA, Cuyas E, Folguera-Blasco N, Fernandez-Arroyo S, Joven J & Alarcon T 2016, ‘Accelerated geroncogenesis in hereditary breast-ovarian cancer syndrome’, Oncotarget, 7, 11959-11971.

– Trejo-Soto C, Costa-Miracle E, Rodriguez-Villarreal I, Cid J, Alarcon T & Hernandez-Machado A 2016, ‘Capillary filling at the  microscale: Control of fluid front using geometry’, PLoS ONE 11, e0153559 (2016).

– Ibanez-Marcelo E & Alarcon T 2016, ‘Evolutionary escape on complex genotype-phenotype networks’. J. Theor. Biol., 394,  18-31

– de la Cruz R, Guerrero P, Spill F & Alarcon T 2016, ‘Stochastic multi-scale models of competition within heterogeneous cellular populations: simulation methods and mean-field analysis’, J. Theor. Biol., 407, 161-183 (2016).

– Cuyas E, Fernandez-Arroyo S, Alarcon T, Lupu R, Joven J & Menendez JA 2016, ‘Germline BRCA1 mutation reprograms breast epithelial cell metabolism towards mitochondrial-dependent biosynthesis: Evidence for metformin-based “starvation” strategies in BRCA1 carriers’, Oncotarget, 7, 52974-52992.

– Sanchez-Taltavull D, Vieiro A & Alarcon T 2016, ‘Stochastic modelling of the eradication of the HIV-1 infection by stimulation of latently infected cells in patients under highly active anti-retroviral therapy’, J. Math. Biol., 73, 919-946.