María A. Blasco

María A. Blasco
Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO), Madrid
Project leader of the Telomeres and Telomerase Laboratory

Targeting telomeres in cancer.

Maria A. Blasco is a molecular biologist devoted to the study of telomeres and telomerase. Her work has been published in high impact journals as, Cell, Nature, Science, among others.

Blasco has merited vast recognition. She was the recipient the EMBO Gold Medal in 2004. She has also been distinguished with the European Association of Cancer Research “Young Investigator Award” (2002), the Joseph Steiner Award (2003), the Rei Jaume I Prize for Basic Research (2007), the Körber European Science Award (2008), the Spanish National Research Award in Biology Santiago Ramón y Cajal (2010).

Blasco has received four Doctorate Honoris Causa: Universidad Carlos III of Madrid (2014), Universidad of Alicante (2017), Universidad of Murcia (2018) and Universidad Internacional de Valencia (2022). In October 2017 received the Generalitat Valenciana Scientific Award.

In 2020 also became a member of the Board of Trustees of Museo del Prado (Madrid, Spain). In 2022, was appointed as Member of the Board of Trustees and President of the Scientific Advisory Board of the ICAR Foundation (International Center for Aging Research) (Valencia – Spain), as well as Member of the Advisory Board of FECYT. She also was designated Full Member (Académica de Número) of the Royal Spanish Academy of Pharmacy (Madrid – Spain)

In 2023 was designated as member of the Advisory Board of Fundación Valenciana Premios Rei Jaume I (Valencia). (Read full CV).

Dr. Blasco established the importance of telomeres and telomerase in disease and longevity. By altering telomerase expression in mouse models, she showed that telomere shortening is one of the principal molecular pathways leading to ageing and ageing-associated diseases (including cancer), and that both ageing and ageing-related diseases can be delayed in mice by telomerase expression, thus significantly extending organismal longevity in mammals. She has also revealed the therapeutic benefits of telomerase activation in mouse models for different diseases associated to short telomeres such as heart infarct, aplasic anaemia and pulmonary fibrosis. She has extended telomere biology to new fields such as DNA repair and recombination, stem cells, chromatin epigenetics, metabolism, and nuclear reprogramming.

Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas
C/ Melchor Fernández Almagro, 3
28029 Madrid
Tel.: (+34) 91 732 80 32 (Ext 3400)

Email: [email protected]