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 in the labs of Bruce Demple (Harvard School of Public Health, Boston) and Nic Jones (Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London).  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. José Ayté, the other co-leader of the group, works on cell cycle.  Our students share knowledge and information, as should be expected for a good scientific practice in science  (please check our web page at https://www.upf.edu/web/osccg).

Research interests

Oxidative stress constitutes the basis of physio-pathological situations such as neurodegenerative diseases and aging.  However, reactive oxygen species such as hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) also exert signaling roles: they may activate antioxidant cascades, and endogenous increases of these species may even improve the overall fitness of the cell and trigger lifespan.  Our lab uses Schizosaccharomyces pombe to study the toxicity associated to oxygen-derived species, specifically protein oxidation and aggregation, and to describe the signaling processes controlled by oxidants.  Understanding the connections between mitochondrial metabolism, H₂O₂ production and lifespan is one of our long-term goals.  The beauty of working with a unicellular eukaryote is that unexpected cross-talks between cellular processes (oxidative stress and autophagy, splicing and meiosis, traffic and inhibition of cell polarity…) can be investigated within a sensible time frame.

Keywords

oxidative stress, signal transduction, h2o2, MAP kinase, transcription, protein quality control, aging