About
Álvaro Aranda Torrecillas holds a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry granted by the University of Córdoba in 2018, with an overall grade point average of 7.82 after 4 academic years. Between 2018 and 2020, AAT completed a master's degree in Environmental, Industrial, and Food Biotechnology granted by Pablo de Olavide University (Seville), with a weighted average of 8.5. His first research experience took place as a scholarship holder during his undergraduate student period in the group of Professor Josefa Muñoz Alamillo (Department of Botany, Ecology and Plant Physiology, University of Cordoba), a working group focused in the area of plant biotechnology employing A. thaliana as a model. This experience allowed him to learn a wide range of molecular biology techniques, including (among others) RNA and DNA isolation, transfection, and PCR. Later on, a second contact with the group of Professor Nieves Abril Díaz (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Cordoba), helped him strengthen his knowledge of molecular biology techniques and animal models. As a result, he carried on with his academic training in other fields of molecular biology with a master's degree. This training helped him to broaden his previous competencies in fields of knowledge closely related to molecular biology, such as biotechnology and bioinformatics. All together has been the key to start his current work as a PhD student at Manuel Tena Sempere’s laboratory (Maimonides Biomedical Research Institute of Cordoba (IMIBIC), Reina Sofia University Hospital, University of Cordoba, Spain). At the moment, his research is mostly focused on pharmacological and endocrine/metabolic/reproductive characterisation based on preclinical translational models of disturbed puberty associated with metabolic disorders. What is more, now he is learning and implementing novel molecular procedures and standard know-how for the care and use of experimental animals, including transgenic mice. He is currently developing his dissertation along two main research lines focused on Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), with the goal of advancing our understanding of the molecular and physiological mechanisms underlying the disorder. The first line investigates the role of hypothalamic microRNAs in the metabolic and reproductive disturbances observed in PWS. The second line examines how impaired fat sensing contributes to the abnormal feeding behavior and metabolic phenotype characteristic of the syndrome, with a particular focus on disruptions in lipid signaling pathways and their potential impact on clinical outcomes.