Laura is a Microbiologist with a minor in Neuroscience from the University of Los Andes, Colombia. Her early work was in molecular biology and biochemistry, focusing on the use of recombinant enzymes and the study of Toxoplasma gondii Dihydroorotate dehydrogenase. She completed her Undergraduate thesis project under the supervision of Dr. Barbara Zimmerman, at the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Parasites group.

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After finishing her undergrad, Laura moved to Barcelona to attend the Master’s in Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Barcelona. She became part of the Peptide-Guided Theranostic lab in 2023, where she completed her master’s thesis: Synaptosome-Associated Protein 25 (SNAP25) as a Biomarker for Glioblastoma and Neuroendocrine Tumors: implications and peptide-guided therapies. While finishing the master’s program, laura was awarded the JAE INTRO ICU 2024 grant for young researchers by the CSIC (Spain’s national research council). She continued the research started on her master’s thesis for six months under this grant, and in October of 2024 officially enrolled in the Biotechnology Doctorate program at the University of Barcelona. Laura has one published paper: A Cyclic Peptide Targets Glioblastoma by Binding to Aberrantly Exposed SNAP25.