Elena Hidalgo graduated in Pharmacy at the Universitat de Barcelona, where she obtained her PhD at the Biochemistry Department in 1991. She performed two postdoctoral stages during eight years in the labs of Bruce Demple (Harvard School of Public Health, Boston) and Nic Jones (Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London), studying how cells respond to oxidative stress. She was recruited by Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona) in 2000, where she is now full professor. As a University member, she is both teaching and working on research as the co-director of the Oxidative Stress and Cell Cycle Group.

Research interests

Moderate fluctuations of hydrogen peroxide or other reactive oxygen species (ROS) rule numerous signalling pathways: they may activate antioxidant cascades, and endogenous increases of these species may even improve the overall fitness of the cell and trigger life span.  However, larger increases constitute the basis of physio-pathological situations such as neurodegenerative diseases and aging.  Our lab uses the eukaryotic model system Schizosaccharomyces pombe to study the toxicity associated to ROS, specifically protein oxidation and aggregation, and to describe the signalling processes controlled by oxidants.  We have developed genetically-encoded reporters to monitor intracellular levels of oxidants, to determine the spatial and temporal hydrogen peroxide thresholds governing physiological, signalling and toxicity events, and to describe the gradients of peroxides between the mitochondria and the cytosol.

Keywords

Oxidative stress - signaling cascades - gene regulation - protein homeostasis - thiol chemistry - redox sensors - mitochondria