Marina Barcena-Varela

Biography

Dr. Marina Bárcena-Varela is a researcher at the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón (IiSGM) in Madrid, Spain, where she holds a competitive national grant, Atracción de Talento–César Nombela, awarded by the Comunidad de Madrid. She is a former postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Oncological Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. Her research focuses on the mechanisms driving liver cancer development and therapy resistance, with particular emphasis on how tumor-intrinsic and -extrinsic factors—such as genetic alterations and the tumor microenvironment—contribute to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression. Currently, she is leading innovative research exploring the interplay between tumor genetics, immune evasion, and gut microbiome composition in liver cancer.