Clara Bayona is a pre-doctoral student who joined the TME lab in 2019 to study glioblastoma using complex organ-on-chip models. She graduated in 2019 in Biotechnology from the University of Zaragoza, during which she participated in the Erasmus programme in Molecular Biology at the University of Ostrava, Czech Republic. Immediately after, she spent three months at the University of Bath, UK, studying the development of enzymatic fuel cells for self-powered diabetes monitoring. She then completed her MSc in Molecular and Cellular Biology and joined the TME laboratory for her MSc project focusing on the study of glioblastoma in spheroids and microfluidic models. During this time, she also gained experience and knowledge in cancer immunology by attending a Course on Tumour Immunology and Cancer Immunotherapy.

Her PhD is focused on studying the microenvironment of glioblastoma using organ-on-chip models to understand how the tumour functions in an environment more similar to that found in vivo in patients (oxygen and nutrient tension, three-dimensionality, interstitial flow, etc.). Using this model, she has been able to detect and analyse tumour-specific biomarkers, as well as possible therapeutic targets and their effect on the different regions of the tumour. All this has allowed her to present her work at international conferences such as EUROOCS or EANO, and to carry out an international stay at a centre specialised in microfluidic flow systems called Elvesys. She also combines her PhD with teaching histology practicals in the first and second years of medical school.

Her current research focuses on the interaction between glioblastoma and the immune system in an organ-on-chip model. Thanks to a stay at the Luxembourg Institute of Health (specifically in the NORLUX neuro-oncology laboratory group), she was able to take the study of this interaction a step further by learning to replace basic cell lines with more advanced cell models obtained from GBM patient samples. With her PhD, she hopes to contribute to a better understanding of how glioblastoma and the immune system behave inside the brain, and thus try to find targets to fight the tumour and improve the life expectancy of people with glioblastoma.