Dr Belinda Baquero-Perez

Profile

I joined the Universisty of Leeds in 2012 as a post-doctoral research fellow where I carried out two post-docotoral positions in the Whitehouse lab investigating Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus.

I have now (October 2019) relocated to Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona) to work in the molecular virology lab of Prof. Juana Diez which is based at the Parc de Recerca Biomedica de Barcelona (PRBB).

I obtained my PhD in veterinary medicine and science from the University of Nottingham in 2012. This was a BBRSC-CASE studentship in which I investigated the molecular basis of innate resistance in ducks to avian influenza.

From 2006 to 2008 I was a research scientist at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) (UK). I was responsible for the development and application of biochemical and immunochemical techniques to study atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) cases.

From September 2005 to March 2006 I was an Erasmus student in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading (UK). Before then, I graduated as a veterinarian from the University of Zaragoza, Spain.

Research interests

In the past three years I have investigated the emergent area of RNA modifications, specifically N6-methyladenosine (m6A), this is the most common internal modification of cellular mRNAs with essential roles regulating RNA secondary structure, turnover, translation and processing of mRNAs. In my post-doc work, I have mapped this modification in the Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) transcriptome and identified novel proteins that have the ability to specifically recognise and bind m6A-modified RNAs. I have further characterised the function of one of these m6A reader proteins in the KSHV lytic replication cycle.

Qualifications

• PhD Veterinary Medicine and Science
• DVM Doctor in Veterinary Medicine