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
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
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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
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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.
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.
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
German (Native): ●●●●●
English (C1): ●●●●○
Spanish (C1): ●●●●○
French (B1): ●●○○○
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.
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.
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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. And yes, I built my own van for the full experience!!
