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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 Cancer Modelling 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 cell reprogramming in cancer and ageing, robustness and evolvability, and stochastic virus dynamics

Selected publications

– Stepanova, Daria; Byrne, Helen M.; Maini, Philip K.; Alarcon, Tomas 2021, ‘A multiscale model of complex endothelial cell dynamics in early angiogenesis’, Plos Computational Biology, 17, 1, e1008055.

Alarcon, Tomas; Sardanyes, Josep; Guillamon, Antoni; Menendez, Javier A. 2021, ‘Bivalent chromatin as a therapeutic target in cancer: An in silico predictive approach for combining epigenetic drugs’, Plos Computational Biology, 17, 6, e1008408.

– Mendez-Mora, Lourdes; Cabello-Fusares, Maria; Ferre-Torres, Josep; Riera-Llobet, Carla; Lopez, Samantha; Trejo-Soto, Claudia; Alarcon, Tomas; Hernandez-Machado, Aurora 2021, ‘Microrheometer for Biofluidic Analysis: Electronic Detection of the Fluid-Front Advancement’, Micromachines, 12, 6, 726.

– Mendez-Mora, Lourdes; Cabello-Fusares, Maria; Ferre-Torres, Josep; Riera-Llobet, Carla; Krishnevskaya, Elena; Trejo-Soto, Claudia; Payan-Pernia, Salvador; Hernandez-Rodriguez, Ines; Morales-Indiano, Cristian; Alarcon, Tomas; Vives-Corrons, Joan-Lluis; Hernandez-Machado, Aurora 2021, ‘Blood Rheological Characterization of beta-Thalassemia Trait and Iron Deficiency Anemia Using Front Microrheometry’, Frontiers In Physiology, 12, 761411.

– Elizalde-Torrent A, Trejo-Soto C, Méndez-Mora L, Nicolau M, Ezama O, Gualdrón-López M, Fernández-Becerra C, Alarcón T,  Hernández-Machado A & del Portillo HA 2021, ‘Pitting of malaria parasites in microfluidic devices mimicking spleen interendothelial slits‘, Scientific Reports, 11: 22099

ICREA Memoir 2021