Mar Gomez's Biography

Mar Gomez, Group Leader, National Centre for Biotechnology

Dr. Valés-Gómez studied the regulation of the specificity of Natural Killer cell cytotoxicity and the interactions between different Natural Killer cell receptor-ligand pairs during her PhD project in the laboratory of Prof. J.L. Strominger at Harvard University. After graduation, she moved to the University of Cambridge, where she worked on the recognition of virally-infected cells by human Natural Killer cells and viral strategies to mediate immune evasion. In 2006, she established her own independent research group, financed by an MRC New Investigator Award, focusing on the regulation of the expression at the cell surface of the different families of ligands for the immune receptor NKG2D. This research demonstrated differences in the biochemical properties and cell trafficking of these proteins and characterised their release from the cell by metalloprotease-mediated shedding or in exosomes. Recently, the group has moved to the National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC), Madrid, Spain, where it continues to study the molecular interaction between Natural Killer cells and target cells.