Tomás Alarcón

Tomás Alarcón

Centre de Recerca Matemàtica

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), OCCAM (University of Oxford, UK), the Mathematical Institute (University of Oxford, UK), and the Mathematical Biosciences Institute (Columbus, Ohio, USA). 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

– Forners J, Sardanyes J, Lazaro T, Alarcon T & Elena SF 2019, ‘Viral replication modes in single-peak fitness landscapes: a dynamical systems analysis.‘, J. Theor. Biol., 460, 170-183.

– Ponce-Bobadilla AV, Arevalo J, Sarro E, Byrne HM, Maini PK, Carraro T, Balocco S, Meseguer A & Alarcon T 2019, ‘Local migration quantification method for scratch assays‘, J. R. Soc. Interface, 16, 20180709.

– de la Cruz R, Perez-Carrasco R, Guerrero P, Alarcon T & Page KM 2019, ‘Comment on “Minimum Action Path Theory Reveals the Details of Stochastic Transitions Out of Oscillatory States” Reply‘, Physical Review Letters, 122, 5, 059802.

– Folguera-Blasco N, Perez-Carrasco R, Cuyas E, Menendez JA & Alarcon T 2019, ‘A multiscale model of epigenetic heterogeneity-driven cell fate decision-making.’, Plos Computational Biology, 15, 4, e1006592.

– Ponce Bobadilla AV, Carraro T, Byrne HM, Maini PK & Alarcon T 2019, ‘ Age-structure can account for delayed logistic proliferation of scratch assays‘, Bull. Math. Biol., 81, 2706-2724.

– Menendez J, Cuyas E, Folguera-Blasco N, Verdura S, Martin-Castillo B & Alarcon T 2019, ‘In silico clinical trials for anti-aging therapiesAging, 11, 6591-6601.