06/03/2020

Congratulations to Judith Pérez Granado for winning the Barcelona Science Slam

​Last 22nd of February, the 7th Edition of the Barcelona Science Slam took place at Bar Mau Mau in Poble Sec, Barcelona. The event was organized by the CRG with the collaboration of ChromDesign. For those who don't know, a science slam is a scientific communication contest where scientists explain their research projects in 5 minutes in an engaging, fun and clear way. PhD students and postdoctoral researchers are encouraged to join the experience and bring their research closer to the public. This year's winner was awarded a trip to present his/her research at the European Science Slam finals in the frame of the ESOF2020  in Trieste (Italy) in July.

Judith Pérez Granado, PhD student at the Integrative Biomedical Informatics Group of GRIB, presented her PhD thesis project and was the winner of this Slam. She said: "To me, it was a pleasure to present my science in a fun and simple way so it could reach everyone. It made me even see my research from another perspective. To anyone that would like to participate, I would encourage him/her to do so. It is a great experience!"​. Here you are the video of the full presentation.

The presentation of Judith was focused on understanding the biological mechanisms underlying Major Depression (MD). Indeed, MD affects over 300.000 million people around the world and is the leading cause of impairment. Currently, there is no biomarker nor laboratory test to aid either in the diagnosis or treatment selection. Moreover, 40% of patients do not respond to the treatment they are given. In this sense, she has collected all available data related to the genomic variants associated with MD from scientific publications and population data repositories. Now, she is developing a pipeline to characterize these genomic variants with the use of different bioinformatic tools. She aims to better understand which is the role of these genomic variants in the pathogenesis of MD. Finally, she will bring this information to the end-users (researchers or health professionals) through the development of an online platform, K-FRAMD. This knowledge platform will show the information in a clear and easy-to-use way complemented with analytical tools developed to solve specific questions of the researchers in this field. The main goal of her project is to promote the identification of new therapeutic targets and biomarkers to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of MD patients.