Dr. Alejandra Tomas Catala

Biography

Alejandra Tomas Catala is a Professor in Cell Biology and the Head of the Section of Cell Biology and Functional Genomics at the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction, Imperial College London. She obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from University College London in 2003. Her research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of calcium-dependent membrane remodeling in mammalian cells. After completing her PhD, she took a postdoctoral position at the University of Geneva Medical School, Switzerland, where she analyzed various aspects of insulin secretion regulation in pancreatic beta cells, primarily related to the role of the cytoskeleton in exocytosis and endocytosis pathways. In 2009, she joined the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Geneva, where she concentrated on receptor trafficking within the endocytic pathway. She returned to the UK in 2011 to continue her research, and in 2015 she was awarded a New Investigator Research Grant from the MRC to establish her research group at Imperial College to investigate the role of membrane receptor trafficking in signaling and its effect on the function of pancreatic beta cells. Her laboratory conducts various investigations into the spatiotemporal regulation of GLP-1 receptor signaling, a key receptor involved in controlling blood glucose levels and related metabolic parameters. She also serves as the director of the MSc in Applied Genomics program and is part of the Imperial Membrane Receptor and Imperial Diabetes Networks of Excellence.

Research Interests