Caffarel Lab > Team > Marcela Garzón

Marcela Garzón

Postdoctoral researcher

Marcela obtained her degree in Biotechnology from San Francisco University in Quito, Ecuador, where she worked as a research assistant and gained early experience in an R&D laboratory within the oils and fats industry. She then completed a Master’s degree in Advanced Therapies at Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid, Spain. In 2023, she earned her PhD in Immunology at the University of Zaragoza under the supervision of Dr. Julián Pardo, graduating with the highest distinction (Outstanding, Cum Laude).

During her doctoral studies, Marcela investigated the immune response during sepsis caused by bacterial and viral infections, focusing on the role of granzymes in inflammation and infection. She developed broad technical expertise in cell culture, molecular biology, flow cytometry, ELISA, and mouse models of infection and inflammation (BSL2 and BSL3). Her research also included the design and execution of advanced 3D culture systems to study immune cell interactions in vitro. Marcela has presented her work at several international conferences, including ECCMID (2020, 2023), the Congress of the Spanish Society of Immunology (2021), and the European Workshop on Cell Death (2023). Her findings have been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Theranostics, Cell Reports, and Frontiers in Immunology.

She is currently focused on understanding the immunological mechanisms underlying breast cancer, with a particular interest in the role of cytokines in shaping the tumor microenvironment and modulating the immune response to immunotherapies.