Manuel Varas

Biography

Since 2019 I work as a researcher at the Center for Cell Biology and Biomedicine (CEBICEM) at the San Sebastián University. I have extensive training in molecular and cellular biology. My training includes undergraduate studies in biochemistry at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso and a PhD in Biotechnology at Andres Bello University. During my PhD (2008-2012) I start my studies in the field of cancer at the Fundación Ciencia & Vida. My work was related to study the effect of a family of non-coding mitochondrial RNAs on cancer development using a melanoma model. Later I completed my postdoctoral degree at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden (2013-2015), and my work was focus on how calcium signals could regulate the progression of bladder cancer, and how standard therapies such as Bacillus Calmette Guerin could modulate these types of signals. On my return to Chile in 2015 I joined as a young researcher in the Reproduction Biology Laboratory of the University of Los Andes to begin my
independent research in the field of tumor extracellular vesicles.