Lilian Marie Boll

Experiences

Data Scientist and Project Management (PhD Researcher)
Nov. 2021 - Jul. 2025

PhD Researcher at M. Mar Albà’s Evolutionary Genomics Group, Hospital del Mar Research Institute, Barcelona
- My research focussed on response to immunotherapy in bladder cancer, integrating clinical and multi-omics data for biomarker discovery.
- I coordinated three projects, balancing data generation and analysis, publication, and presentations ensuring deadlines were met.
- In quarterly meetings, I ensured the engagement of stakeholders and KOLs from international institutes, including clinicians, lab staff & bioinformaticians.
- Handled seven big datasets, ensured data harmonization and quality control, and generated robust evidence.
- I showed strong team leading abilities by mentoring two junior scientists, both pursuing a PhD in Bioinformatics now.
- I have proven strong scientific writing skills gained from conducting three manuscripts, resulting in two-first author publications in Nature Communication and Scientific Reports.
- Presenting my results at five international conference and seven public events (in English & Spanish) proves my ability to shape data into engaging stories.
Proactive Learner and Adaptable Researcher
July 2024

Visiting Researcher in the Computational Immunogenomics and Cancer Computational Biology Group at Vall d’Hebron Oncology Institute (VHIO), Barcelona
- Coming from an evolutionary biology lab, I quickly learned mathematical survival data analysis and immunopeptidomics techniques resulting in the successful realization of experiments in a concentrated 4-week period.
Global Scientific Communication & Design Enthusiast
Jan. - Jul. 2024

Design Committee Member of the iSCB Student Council
- Promoted the 20th Student Council Symposium 2024 among early-career scientist.
- Executed a 7-month promotional campaign by designing a cohesive suite of materials, including: 28 social media posts with an estimated reach of >1000 followers (targeting Instagram, Twitter/X, LinkedIn), and printed handouts for local schools and universities. Check out our Instgram channel!
- Coordinated with international team members across different time zones, I ensure timely delivery of the design assets.
Strategic Thinker and Cross-Functional Teamplayer
Sep. 2019 - Feb. 2020

Internship (M.Sc.) at Urban Planning and Environmental Health Department, ISGlobal, Barcelona
- Applied statistical programming using R on one epidemiological dataset to analyze prenatal greenspace exposure and child health, employing causal inference methods to control for complex socio-economic and cultural confounding factors.
- Authored, revised, and managed the submission process for a first-author manuscript, resulting in a peer-reviewed publication.
- Cooperated as a key member of a multi-disciplinary team (involving members from Iran and 5 European countries) to conduct a comprehensive literature review.
Comprehensive Biomedical Scientist (B.Sc.)
Jan. 2018 - Jul. 2018

B.Sc. in Biomed and internship at Cell Biology, Philipps Universität, Marburg
- I built a wide scientific foundation covering core disciplines including Biochemistry, Physiology, Genetics, Pathology, and Pharmacology.
- During an internship at Prof. Ralf Jacob’s group, I applied this knowledge by successuflly conducting a wide spectrum of wet lab and microscopy techniques resulting in the successful realization of experiments in less than 6 months.
Courses
- Scientific Communication by Scienseed, May 2023
- Open Science by SIRIS Academy, May 2023
- Advanced Course on Immunity and Cancer Immunotherapy by Institut Curie, Jun 2022
- Cancer Genomics Course by EMBL, Jun 2022
- NGS - Genome variant analysis by the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Mar 2022
- Research Integrity by SIRIS Academy, Feb 2022
- Teamwork and Collaborative Intelligence by SIRIS Academy, Feb 2022
- Public Speaking by Big Van Science, Feb 2022
- Scientific Writing by Scienseed, Feb 2022
- Good Scientific Practice by UPF, PhD in Biomedicine, Dec 2021

Publications

Papers
- Boll, L.M., Vázquez Montes de Oca, S., Camarena, M.E., Castelo, R., Bellmunt, J., Perera-Bel, J., Albà, M.M., Predicting immunotherapy response in advanced bladder cancer: a meta-analysis of six independent cohorts. Nature Communications. 2024. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56462-0.
- Boll, L.M., Perera-Bel, J., Rovira, A., Juanpere Rodero, N., Vázquez, S., Hernández-Llodrà, S., Lloreta, J., Albà, M.M., Bellmunt J, The impact of mutational clonality in predicting the response to immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced urothelial cancer, Scientific Reports, 2023; doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-42495-2.
- Boll, L.M., Khamirchi, R., Alonso, L., Llurba, E., Óscar, J. P., & Dadvand, P., Prenatal Greenspace Exposure and Cord Blood Cortisol Levels, Environment International, 2020; doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2020.106047.
- Sakhvidi, M. J.Z, de Keijzer, C., Bauwelinck, M., Boll, L.M., Knobel, P., Jacquemin, B., Dadvand, P., Greenspace exposure and children behavior: A systematic review, Sci Total Environ, 2022; doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153608.
Scientific Talks
- DFCI Harvard Bladder Research Monthly Meeting, Online, 29th of Oct 2025.
- European Association for Cancer Research (EACR), Barcelona, Spain, 13th of May 2025.
- PRBB Computational Genomics Symposium, St Feliu de Guíxols, Spain, 28th of April 2025.
- PRBB Computational Genomics Seminars, Barcelona, Spain, 4th of April 2024.
- VHIO Computational Oncology Master Thesis Award, Barcelona, Spain, 21st of February 2024
Poster Presentations
- EMBL Cancer Genomics Conference, Heidelberg, Germany, 16th of November 2023
- PRBB Computational Genomics Symposium, St Feliu de Guíxols, Spain, 13th of April 2023
- Women in Data Science, Barcelona, Spain, 28th of September 2022
- European Conference Computational Biology (ECCB), Sitges, Spain, 12th of September 2022
- Immunity and Cancer Immunotherapy, Marseille, France, 21st of June 2022
- EMBL Cancer Genomics Course, Cambridge, Great Britain, 20th of June 2022
- Check out my most recent poster here!

Education

PhD in Bioinformatics

Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
- Awarded laCaixa INPhINIT Fellowship (6.5% success rate)
- Dissertation focused on biomarker discovery and predicting immunotherapy response using big multi-omics and clinical data (Read here!).
- Big thanks to my wonderful supervisor M. Mar Albà!
Bioinformatics(M.Sc.)
Sep. 2020 - Jul. 2022

Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
- Graduated with Honorable Mention for my thesis on immunotherapy response in urothelial cancer.
- Awarded VHIO Computational Oncology Master Thesis Award (2nd place).
Public Health (M.Sc.)
Sep. 2018 - Jul. 2020

University of Southern Denmark, Esbjerg, Denmark
- Graduated with Honorable Mention for my thesis on the effect of greenspaces on stress levels during pregnancy.
- Awarded ERASMUS+ to conduct internship abroad at ISGlobal, Barcelona.
Biomedical Science (B.Sc.)
Sep. 2015 - Jul. 2018

Philipps Universität, Marburg, Germany
- Built strong biomedical understanding and basic wet lab experience.

Science Communication

International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Barcelona
Mar 8th 2025

2 hours of Experiments with Students of 6 to 8 years old - in Spanish.
European Researcher’s Night, Barcelona
Sep 27th 2024

10 min Flash Talk about my PhD to the general public - in Spanish.
Research in 4Min Finals, UPF Barcelona
May 9th 2024

4 min presentation of the PhD thesis to the general public - in English.
International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Mataró
Feb 7th 2024

One hour talk with school children of 13 years old, explaining the basics of bioinformatics research - in Spanish.
OpenPRBB 2023, Barcelona
Oct 7th 2023

20 min Presentation to the general public about my work as a Bioinformatician - in English.
International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Orlot
Feb 7th 2022

One hour online presentation for young adults about my work as a female scientist - in Spanish.
European Researcher’s Night, Barcelona
Sep 24th 2021

10 min Flash Talk about my PhD to the general public - in Spanish.

Skills

Search skills

Scientific Skills
- Integrative multi-omics analysis (genomics, transcriptomics, single-cell, immunopeptidomics)
- Clinical and molecular data interpretation
- Research data management, governance & FAIR data practices
- Open science & reproducibility in biomedical research
Data and Tech
- Biostatistics & machine learning for biological data
- Pipeline optimization (APIs, cluster computing, version control)
- Database design, curation & integration
Python

R

Bash

Slurm

Git

HTML5

MySQL
Project Management
- Critical thinking & solution-oriented mindset
- Cross-functional collaboration
- Mentoring & team leadership
- Efficient time and resource management
Communication & Writing
- Scientific Writing and Storytelling
- Public Speaking
- Illustration & Animation Software
- Social Media Management
Affinity Designer

MOHO

Canva

Adobe Illustrator

Inkscape

Languages

German (Native): ●●●●●
English (C1): ●●●●○
Spanish (C1): ●●●●○
French (B1): ●●○○○

Awards

INPhINIT Doctoral Fellow
Nov. 2022

Fundación “laCaixa”, 6.5% sucess rate
Master Thesis Award
Jul. 2023

Second place in the VHIO Computational Oncology Master Thesis Award
First price in Entreprenship competition
Jun. 2019

My team won the Social Entrepreneurship eHealth Challenge with our project on air pollution and NCDs organised by Young Leaders for Health.

Science and Art

Figures for Doctoral Thesis
Animation of immune checkpoint inhibitors
Graphic Design Projects
- PRBB Sustainability Group Logo (left)
- Design Committee for Student Council Symposium 2024 (SCS) (center and right): Designing the poster, social media posts and merch for the 20th SCS meeting 2024 in Montreal, Canada.

Outside the lab

Besides being a scientist, I also enjoy drawing and designing. Here are some examples of my work
In my free time, you’ll find me outdoors, chasing a bit of adrenaline and balance from Barcelona’s city buzz.

Lilian Marie Boll

PhD in Bioinformatics

Experiences

Publications

Education

Science Communication

Skills

Languages

Awards

Science and Art

Outside the lab