Michele Alves-Bezerra, PhD

Principal Investigator

I started working on Lipid Metabolism in 2006 as an undergraduate research student. I then obtained a Master and a PhD degree in Biochemistry by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 2011 and 2015, respectively. 

From 2015 to 2020, I undertook postdoctoral trainings in the field of Hepatology at the Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA) and Weill Cornell Medical College (New York City, USA), being awarded the NASH Fatty Liver Disease Postdoctoral Research Award by American Liver Foundation (ALF, USA, 2016-2017) and an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship (AHA, USA, 2018-2020).

In 2020, I became a Junior Group Leader at the Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, USA), being awarded the NIH K01 Research Scientist Development Award by the National Institutes of Health (NIH, USA, 2021-2024) and a Career Development Award by the American Heart Association (AHA, USA, 2020-2023).

In 2022, I moved my group to Spain, where I received a Maria Zambrano Grant by the Spanish Ministry of Universities & European Union – NextGenerationEU (2022-2023) and an EMERGIA Grant by the Andalusian Government (2023-2027).

My research interests are to identify relevant pathways involved in the progression of MASLD and to manipulate these pathways in order to mitigate the disease.

María Antonia Mateo Marín

PHD STUDENT

María Antonia received her BSc degree in Biotechnology from the University of Cadiz (Spain) in 2022. As an undergraduate research student, she was awarded a Santander Research Fellowship (2021-2022), the 2022 Student´s Excellence Award, and the 2022 Undergraduate Thesis Award. She then obtained a Master’s degree in Biomedicine from University of Cadiz in 2023. As a Master research student, Maria Antonia awarded a University of Cadiz Research Fellowship (2022-2023) and the 2023 Master Thesis Award.

María Antonia joined the Lipid Lab in December 2023 to elucidate the role of de novo lipogenesis in the progression of MASLD and to determine whether this pathway can be targeted for the treatment of the disease. 

Daniel palenque blanco

PHD STUDENT 

Daniel obtained a high school degree as a Clinical and Biomedical Laboratory technician in 2019. He then continued his studies and obtained a BSc degree in Biology from the University of Malaga (Spain) in 2023 and a Master’s degree in Biotechnology from the University of Cadiz in 2024. In 2025, he joined the PhD program in Biomolecules and Biomedicine at the University of Cadiz to fully advance his research training.

Daniel joined the Lipid Lab in December of 2023 and, since then, he investigates the role of acyl-CoA synthetases in lipoprotein metabolism and cardiovascular diseases.

Laura Cubero López

RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Laura received a BSc degree in Chemistry from the University of Córdoba (Spain) in 2010 and a Master’s degree in Biomedicine from the University of Cádiz in 2012. Since 2010, she works as a Laboratory Assistant for teaching and research at the University of Cádiz. She is a Research Staff Member at the Biomedical Research Core Services since 2024 and a Lipid Lab member since 2025. She is interested in microscopy techniques applied to the study of cellular metabolism.

Javier Pérez Pérez

Undergraduate STUDENT

Javier is in his senior year of the Biotechnology BS major at the University of Cadiz. He has a broad interest in Biomedicine and novel therapeutic approaches to treat human diseases. Javier joined the Lipid Lab in December 2025 to optimize fluorescent assays to measure lipid metabolic rates.