Dra. Anna Meseguer Navarro

Head of Group
Email: ana.meseguer@vhir.org
Phone: 934894061 / ext 4061

Research Group

Kidney Physiopathology

Biosketch

Dr. Anna Meseguer got her Ph.D., under Professor Lloyd J. Old mentoring, in the field of Cancer Immunogenetics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.Shewas later awarded with a National Institute of Health (NIH) Post-doctoral Fellowship for the Endocrinology Training Program in Medicine, to work on the mechanisms of kidney-specific gene regulation by androgensat the Rockefeller University (NY) and, afterwards, appointed as a tenure track investigator inthe same University.

In 1990, after 8 years in New York, she came back to Spain as a Group Leader working in the construction and development of a new Biomedical Research Unit (URB),at the Vall d’Hebron Hospital. Since then, she has been PI of many competitive projects on the renal physiopathology field, which have beenfinanced in an interrupted manner from government and foreign agencies with successful outcome regarding publications, patents and pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellow training. Shehas been director of 18 Ph.D. thesis and 36 Master thesis, and is currently director of 7 Ph.D. and 1 MScthesis. The group, a pioneer on the study of androgen action in kidney, is a Consolidated Research Group from the Generalitat de Catalunya and member of IRSIN and REDinRENnationwide renal networks.

Upon her return from USA, she moved from basic research to more oriented translational research, trying to correlate androgen action in kidney with toxicity by immunosuppressant drugs, hypertension, metabolic processes and cancer. Recently, the role of androgens in kidney injury and kidney diseases has been acknowledged not only in mouse experimental models but also in humans. The close collaboration with urologists from the Vall d’Hebron Hospital, who are integrated in the research group, has prompt the development of renal cancer projects and the use of the mini pig model for studies of I/R injury and the subsequent regenerative processes in kidney, at the structural, biochemical and molecular level. The role of androgens in these processes is investigated, as well as their implications in chronic kidney disease progression and renal cancer development. For the last two years,Dr. Meseguer is leading, together with Dr. GemaAriceta (Head of the Pediatric Nephrology Service at the Vall d’Hebron Hospital) new projects in RARE kidney diseases, in close collaboration with patients associations.

She has obtained a patent on diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of renal cell carcinoma that was awarded second prize at the Valortec Contest of the Generalitat de Catalunya 2014. This patenthas entered national phases and is now under an exclusive option agreement with a USA Company.

Dr. Meseguergot a Master degree in Management and Leadership in Science and Innovation (Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Barcelona School of Management) and since 2012 is Associate Director for Translational Research at VHIR and Secretary of the internal Scientific Advisory Board. She is also Associate Professor at the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department at the Faculty of Medicine of the UAB and coordinator of the Master on Translational Biomedical Research offered by VHIR.