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 resistance 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, senescence and ageing, tumour-induced angiogenesis, and epigenetic regulation.

Selected publications

- López J, Llop-Hernández A, Verdura S, Serrano-Hervás E, Martinez-Balibrea E, Bosch-Barrera J, Teixidor E, López-Bonet E, Martin-Castillo B, Sardanyés J, Alarcón T, Lupu R, Cuyàs E & Menendez JA 2025, 'Mitochondrial priming and response to BH3 mimetics in "one-two punch" senogenic-senolytic strategies', Cell death discovery, 11 - 1 - 91.
- Stepanova D, Guasch MB, Byrne HM & Alarcón T 2025, 'Understanding How Chromatin Folding and Enzyme Competition Affect Rugged Epigenetic Landscapes', Bulletin of mathematical biology, 87 - 5 -59.
- Fucho-Rius M, Maretvadakethope S, Haro A, Alarcón T, Sardanyés J & Pérez-Carrasco R 2025, 'Local nearby bifurcations lead to synergies in critical slowing down: The case of mushroom bifurcations', Physical review e, 111 - 2 - 024213.
- Menendez JA, Lupu R, Martin-Castillo B, Sardanyés J, Alarcon T, Verdura S & Cuyàs E 2025, 'Mitochondrial priming in therapy-induced senescence: implications for CAR-T/NK immunosenolytic therapy', Frontiers in immunology, 16 - 1695244.
- Arellano-Tinto J, Stepanova D, Byrne HM, Maini PK & Alarcon T 2025, 'Multiscale modelling shows how cell-ECM interactions impact ECM fibre alignment and cell detachment', Plos computational biology, 21 - 11 - e1012698.
- Cloete I & Alarcon T 2025, 'Dynamical analysis of a model of BCL-2-dependent cellular decision making', Npj systems biology and applications, 11 - 1 - 139.