Dr Beatriz Romartínez-Alonso

I graduated from the University of Barcelona with a Bachelor of Biochemistry, and from the Polytechnic University of Valencia with a Bachelor of Biotechnology. My final project was under the supervision of Prof. Lynne Yenush at the School of Agricultural Engineering and Environment where I spent a year with a SICUE fellowship. Then, I completed my Masters of Science degree in Nanotechnology at the University of Zaragoza focusing on the characterisation of magnetic nanoparticles and their influence in neuronal cells. Next, I moved to Leicester to join John Schwabe's group as a PhD student within the FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Funding, which I completed in December 2017. My doctoral project focused on understanding the pathogenesis associated with several mutations in the Thyroid Hormone Receptor Alpha through studying the structure and function of the mutant proteins and revealing the structural basis of repression. 

After completing my PhD, I conducted a short project studying the structure of Nek Kinases and their implication in lung cancer under the supervision of Prof. Andrew Fry. In January 2020, I started a new project about cholesterol transport and lipid metabolism as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Leicester, working in Schwabe's group.

My current research interests include a number of interrelated areas related to lipid metabolism, more specifically, to how lipids and cholesterol are stored and transported within the cell. Using molecular and structural techniques, I try to understand how the proteins involved in these processes are assembled as single molecular machines or, sometimes, into large complexes, how they act together with other proteins and how misregulation of these pathways lead to disease.

I also participate in the biophysical and molecular evaluation of rare diseases caused by mutations in nuclear receptors, in particular, Thyroid Hormone Receptor and Liver X Receptor. 

Mishal Tariq; Teppei Ikeya; Naoyuki Togashi; Louise Fairall; Carlos Bueno-Alejo; Syun Kamei; Beatriz Romartinez-Alonso; Miguel Angel Muro Campillo; Andrew J. Hudson; Yutaka Ito et al. (2023). Structural insights into the complex of oncogenic K-Ras4BG12V and Rgl2, a RalA/B activator. BioRxiv.

Beatriz Romartinez-Alonso, Maura Agostini, HeulynJ ones, Jayde McLellan, D. Eilidh Sood, Nicholas Tomkinson, Federica Marelli, Ilaria Gentile, W. Edward Visser, Erik Schoenmakers, Louise Fairall, Martin Privalsky, Carla Moran, Luca Persani, Krishna Chatterjee, John W.R. Schwabe. (2022) Structure-Guided Approach to Relieving Transcriptional Repression in Resistance to Thyroid Hormone alpha. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 42 (2). 10.1128/mcb.00363-21.

Irene Campi; Maura Agostini; Federica Marelli; Tiziana de Filippis; Beatriz Romartinez-Alonso; Odelia Rajanayagam; Giuditta Rurale; Ilaria Gentile; Federica Spagnolo; Massimiliano Andreasi et al. (2021) Clinical Consequences of Variable Results in the Measurement of Free Thyroid Hormones: Unusual Presentation of a Family with a Novel Variants in the THRB Gene Causing Resistance to Thyroid Hormone Syndrome. European Thyroid Journal, 10 (6). 10.1159/000519748.

Xu Xiao; Youngjae Kim; Beatriz Romartinez-Alonso; Kristupas Sirvydis; Daniel S. Ory; John W. R. Schwabe; Michael E. Jung; Peter Tontonoz (2021) Selective Aster Inhibitors distinguish vesicular and nonvesicular sterol transport mechanism. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118 (2). 10.1073/pnas.2024149118.

First Prize Awarded in poster presentation and poster design: Nuclear Receptors and Epigenomic Mechanisms in Human Disease and Aging Course (Island of Spetses, Greece) in August 27 – September 1, 2017 ( http://ki.se/en/bionut/spetses-2017).

CCP-EM Spring Symposium 2023 & Diamond Biological Cryo-Imaging (eBIC & B24) user Meeting. April 25 - 27 2023 - Nottingham, UK

CCP4 Study Week January 2023 (Diamond Light Source, UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire).

CCP4 Study Week January 2022 (Diamond Light Source, UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire).

Diamond Early Career Scientist Symposium November 2021 (Diamond Light Source, UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire).

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and Institute for Structural and Chemical Biology Symposium 2020 (University of Leicester).

Early Career Scientist Symposium 2020 (Diamond Light Source, UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire).

CCP-EM Spring Symposium 2021 (Institute for Structural and Chemical Biology, University of Leicester).

Nuclear Receptors and Epigenomic Mechanisms in Human Disease and Aging Course - Island of Spetses (Greece) in August 27 – September 1, 2017 ( http://ki.se/en/bionut/spetses-2017). I was awarded First Prize in poster presentation and poster design.

NR-NET Annual Meeting Stockholm (September 26-27, 2016) and Workshop in Project Management. Topics included project planning, financing, creativity in research, group dynamics, networking, stress management, scientific career paths and perspectives.

Nuclear Receptor Signalling in Physiology and Disease Course that took place in the Island of Spetses (Greece) in August 23 - 28, 2015 ( http://ki.se/en/bionut/spetses-nuclear-receptor- 2015).

Nuclear receptors (NR) - NET First Annual Meeting Hungary (16-19 November, 2014) and Workshop in Genome-wide analysis of transcriptomes and regulomes.

1st Danube Conference on Epigenetics (5-8 October 2014) organised by the Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.