DOCTORAL
CANDIDATES
Background
Emily Berrueta holds a Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from the Interamerican University of Panama, and a Master’s degree in Nutrition and Metabolism from The Rovira I Virgili University. She has a strong scientific background in nutrition research, with a particular interest in the interaction between diet and genes and the molecular mechanisms regulating metabolic health.
During her academic training, she completed research internships at the Polyphenol Research Group of the University of Barcelona and at the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA-CSIC). At IATA, she used Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism to study molecular mechanisms of resistance to stress-inducing agents. For her MSc thesis, she investigated the effect of tomato concentrate consumption on quality of life perception and its relationship with anxiety and depression symptoms.
Research
Emily is currently pursuing her PhD within the NUCLEAR Doctoral Network as part of the DC10 project, conducting her research at Precision for Health (P4H) and the IMDEA Nutrition Institute in Madrid, Spain. Her research focuses on the functional characterization of genetic variants in epigenetic–metabolic sensors, based on the premise that genetic variants of metabolite-sensitive chromatin regulators and metabolic enzymes are likely to influence how diets impact on cellular metabolism, systemic health and disease risk. The ultimate aim is to contribute to the development of precision nutrition strategies in cancer, integrating genetic, epigenetic and metabolic information.