As a biomedical scientist I have nine years of experience in the onco-hematology field. I am interested in understanding how epigenetic modifications drive the leukemia development, with an emphasis in finding new therapeutic targets.

I secured a PhD fellowship (FPU) to join Dr Juan C Cigudosa group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO). There I discovered that the oncogenic AML1-ETO fusion protein (driver of 15% of acute myeloid leukemia patients) mediates the reversible repression of its target genes by two independent epigenetic mechanisms, and identified the transcription factor Sp1 is an essential co-factor for AML1-ETO repression (Maiques-Diaz, 2012 Leukemia; Maiques-Diaz, 2016 Br J Haemtol). I got my PhD in 2014 with excellent cum laude and "premio extraordinario".

In 2014 I joined Prof Tim CP Somervaille group at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute (CRUK-MI) as a postdoctoral fellow. My work here revealed the mechanism of action of the inhibitors of lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1), currently in clinical trials. I defined that LSD1 inhibition drives rapid changes in transcription by inducing the dissociation of the transcriptional repressor GFI1 with LSD1-corepressor complex, resulting in the activation of GFI1-bound enhancers with and increased gene expression of nearby genes (Maiques-Diaz, 2018 Cell Reports).

In parallel I have mentored four undergraduate and two postgraduate students from different Spanish universities as part of IMFAHE program (2015-2018). During 2017-2018 I led the Northwest branch of the Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK (SRUK) to organize networking and outreach events, and have been part of the organizing commitee of the Fifth SRUK International symposium (2017). I also envisioned and founded two initiatives, the Early Career Mentoring progam at CRUK-MI (2018), a postdoc peer-peer mentoring platform; and the Seisques project (2016) a interdisciplinary initiative driven by researchers and artists to encourage creativity in research.