Anna Bigas
Anna Bigas holds a Bachelor of Science (1988) and a PhD in Biological Sciences (1993) from the University of Barcelona (Spain). She has a long-standing interest in hematopoietic stem cells, which started in her PhD thesis by characterising human hematopoietic stem cells. She continued her studies in the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Her pioneering work as a post-doc identified a role of Notch in the regulating hematopoietic differentiation, a highly influential contribution to the field of hematopoiesis (PNAS 1996, Mol. Cell. Biol 1998, Blood 1999).
Since starting her independent research group in Spain she has sought to decipher the molecular mechanisms that regulate stem cell commitment, maintenance, differentiation and oncogenic transformation, mainly focussed in the hematopoietic and intestinal system. Through refined genetic studies she has demonstrated crucial roles for Notch and Wnt in the generation of hematopoietic stem cells in the mouse embryo (Development, 2005, EMBO J 2008, JEM 2012, 2013, 2014, Nat.Commun 2015, EMBOJ 2020).
Her work also helped identify NFkB and b-catenin as a new therapeutic target for the treatment of T-ALL (Cancer Cell 2010, Leukemia 2016), thus contributing to the molecular understanding of this disease. In addition she has actively participated in identifying novel functions for specific NFkB elements other systems(PNAS 2004, 2007, 2009; Cell Reports 2012, Cancer Cell 2013, Leukemia 2018, Mol Cell 2019).
She has received awards and funding from national and international agencies (Cancer Spainish Association (AECC) or Worldwide Cancer Research (former AICR), H2020 (EU) and Spanish Government funding (MINECO). She has been invited as speaker to international meetings such as ASH, EHA, EMBO workshops, Gordon Research Conferences. She was elected EMBO member in 2014.