Raquel Cuella Martin, PhD, Assistant Professor in Â鶹AV’s Department of Human Genetics and School of Biomedical Sciences within the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, has been selected as a winner of the 2024ĚýĚý(ECI) competition.ĚýĚý
Prof. Cuella Martin was one of five investigators selected by theĚý. As a recipient of the ECI award, she presented her work at the 2024 Laureate Lectures on Thursday, October 24, during Gairdner Science Week in Toronto.ĚýĚý
“It is such an honour and a privilege,” says Prof. Cuella Martin. “Having this recognition of my career and potential also comes with some positive pressure to get the great science from our lab out there.”Ěý
She also thanked her family and her girlfriend for their unwavering support, as well as her colleagues and mentors at Â鶹AV and beyond for their encouragement and support.ĚýĚý
At the Laureate Lectures, Prof. Cuella Martin presented her lab’s use of large-scale precision genome engineering to better understand protein function. Such approaches allowed her team to make discoveries in the function of DNA damage response proteins that had not been seen using traditional methods.ĚýĚý
“We think this technology has a lot of potential to tackle complex biological questions that were previously very difficult to study,” she says, adding that her lab hopes to encourage other researchers across Canada and around the world to apply this approach to their own research questions.ĚýĚý
“This is a well-deserved recognition of Dr. Cuella Martin’s hard work and a reflection of Â鶹AV’s ability to attract and support early career researchers making impactful biomedical discoveries,” says Prof. Keith Murai (Associate Dean and Director of the School of Biomedical Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences).Ěý
An opportunity to showcase scientific visionĚýĚý
Prof. Cuella Martin joined the Department of Human Genetics as an Assistant Professor in 2022. She is also a Member of the Victor Philip Dahdaleh Institute of Genomic Medicine, the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Genomic Medicine and an Associate Member of the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Institute.ĚýĚý
Prior to arriving at Â鶹AV, she completed her doctoral studies in the Chapman lab at the University of Oxford’s Wellcome Center for Human Genetics. During this time, she described the mechanistic role of the DNA repair protein 53BP1 in optimal p53 tumour suppressor responses.ĚýĚý
In her postdoctoral work as a European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) long-term fellow at the Ciccia lab (Columbia University), Prof. Cuella Martin used CRISPR-dependent base editing to perform genetic screens at nucleotide resolution and functionalize DNA variants at scale. This approach allowed her to identify loss-, gain- and separation-of-function mutations, and new functional domains in DNA damage response proteins, and to functionalize variants of uncertain significance in cancer predisposition syndromes.ĚýĚý
Prof. Cuella Martin notes that, as a newcomer to the Canadian research community, she particularly appreciated the fact that the award offered a unique forum to showcase her lab’s work and scientific vision.Ěý
“Sometimes, it feels like I’ve been here forever – I now know so many people, and I am embedded in more and more initiatives,” she says. “I think that speaks to how welcoming the Canadian community is. You feel very quickly like you belong.”Ěý
Congratulations, Prof. Cuella Martin!ĚýĚý
Photo:ĚýRaquel Cuella Martin presents her research at the 2024 Laureate Lectures, held during Gairdner Science Week
