Biochemical Journal Young Investigator Award winner

Maria Soledad Sosa

Maria Soledad Sosa initiated herself into the biology field in 1998 when she started her Molecular Biology career at University of San Luis, San Luis, Argentina. At the end of the fifth year of her career she started research work at Institute Leloir in Buenos Aires, Argentina. There she spent 2 years working in the Gene Therapy laboratory directed by Dr. Osvaldo Podhjacer. Basically, this project consisted in the use of two-dimensional gels in order to identify several proteins involved in the signalling pathway of one secreted protein named SPARC (secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine) in melanoma.

Later, in 2005 she took the decision to continue her training research in the laboratory of Dr. Marcelo Kazanietz, Department of Pharmacology, University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), Philadelphia. She spent 2 years in this laboratory under the category of visiting scholar. During this period she studied the biochemical mechanisms of Rac-GAP 22-chimaerin proteins.

In 2007 she started a Ph.D. programme at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Dr. Marcelo Kazanietz is my Ph.D. director and my research work is being carried out in his laboratory, at UPenn. The goal of this project is to determine the basis and functional mechanisms of Rac activation by heregulin stimulation in breast cancer.