Meet Luyao (Amalia) Wang, new group member which has been awarded a PhD fellowship from China Scholarship Council.

“I am from China and Kazakhstan, currently pursuing my PhD at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) under the supervision of Prof. Ana Paula Candiota. I completed my Master’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at East China Normal University, where my thesis, titled “Regulatory Mechanisms of Substrate Recognition and Degradation by the REGγ-20S Proteasome,” focused on proteasome-regulated degradation mechanisms in cancer.

During an exchange and internship at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, I gained hands-on experience in spatial transcriptomics, applying smiFISH and MerFISH techniques to address spatial data loss in single-cell sequencing

Currently, my PhD research aims to follow the group research exploring MRI and MRSI technologies to investigate immune microenvironment changes in glioblastoma (GB) and evaluate therapeutic response. I aim to focus specifically on the PD-L1/PD-1 immune axis and ADAM metalloproteinases, aiming to develop non-invasive biomarkers to support early treatment assessment and advance personalized GB therapy. Moreover, we will study a preclinical model especially resistant to therapy, in order to better emulate a human GB.”