Pedro Rodrigues

Dr. Pedro M Rodrigues (Ph.D in Pharmacy) research has always been related with basic research applied to translational medicine, mostly focused on the study of the liver, from health to disease. During his doctoral studies (2013-2017), he was profoundly interested in the study of the role of miR-21 and nuclear receptors in the pathogenesis and progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Afterwards, in 2018, he enrolled the Liver Diseases Group at the Biodonostia Health Research Institute (Donostia Univ. Hospital, San Sebastian, Spain), led by Prof. Jesus Banales. During his post-doctoral studies, he has studied the molecular mechanisms governing biliary carcinogenesis, with the aim to identify new non-invasive biomarkers and targets for therapy for patients with cholangiocarcinoma (CCA).

Currently, he is Principal Investigator (Miguel Servet I and Ikerbasque Research Fellow) in this same group, and his lines of research are related with the progression of NAFLD and metabolic diseases towards liver cancer, mainly hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and CCA. His main objective relies on the identification of novel non-invasive biomarkers to predict and diagnose liver cancer in populations at high-risk (such as patients with NAFLD) and also identify novel therapeutic targets and drugs.