Author archives: Carlos Romá-Mateo

Image of Carlos Romá-Mateo

Carlos Romá-Mateo holds a PhD in molecular biology. He has worked in signal transduction pathways regulated by protein phosphatases and involved in cell proliferation, glycogen metabolism and protein degradation. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry of the University of Valencia, where he studies the physiopathology of rare diseases in which oxidative stress and epigenetic factors play a crucial role.

Using mass spectrometry to measure circulating histones against sepsis progression

Using mass spectrometry to measure circulating histones against sepsis progression

BiomedicineMedicine

By Carlos Romá-Mateo

Interior of a human blood vessel. Something looks wrong, very wrong. Bacteria have entered the circulation, and the immunological system is reacting. All the alarms are on fire, while an army of white blood cells comes by, getting ready to unleash hell on the invaders. Suddenly, among these security agents, a neutrophil stands out. It […]

Laforin, protein of the year

Laforin, protein of the year

BiochemistryMolecular biology

By Carlos Romá-Mateo

Unveiling the three-dimensional structure of proteins is one of the most useful strategies for understanding the molecular and cellular basis of human pathologies. Since proteins accomplish myriad cellular functions, but they are formed by combinations of only 20 different pieces, the way those pieces are coordinated is critical, and the tiniest difference can change forever […]

It’s not an infection, it’s an invasion!: An army of exosomes loaded with non-coding RNAs reaches endothelial shores

It’s not an infection, it’s an invasion!: An army of exosomes loaded with non-coding RNAs reaches endothelial shores

BiochemistryBiology

By Carlos Romá-Mateo

On 6 June, 1944 (also termed “the D-day”), the Allied army irrupted into the shores of western France in what was called the Invasion of Normandy, during the last stages of World War II. The operation began with hundreds of amphibian landing vehicles emerging from the sea and unloading their cargo – the Infantry divisions […]

Epigenetics takes us back to the Galápagos

Epigenetics takes us back to the Galápagos

BiologyEvolutionGenetics

By Carlos Romá-Mateo

Although not the most important among the many different animals studied by Charles Darwin during his amazing journeys on board the Beagle, the little finches from the Galápagos Islands have become one of the most popular representatives of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. They embody the process of speciation forced by environmental conditions, in the […]

Eat healthily, for your children’s sake!

Eat healthily, for your children’s sake!

BiochemistryBiomedicineMolecular biologyNeurobiology

By Carlos Romá-Mateo

Nowadays we are more aware than ever about the relevance of eating a balanced and assorted diet. However, in the more industrialized countries obesity has become almost epidemic, and it is a condition that lies at the base of many different health issues, being the cardiovascular complications probably the most obvious. But also immunological and […]

Communication breakdown: schizophrenia as the outcome of subtle neuronal dysfunction

Communication breakdown: schizophrenia as the outcome of subtle neuronal dysfunction

BiomedicineNeurobiology

By Carlos Romá-Mateo

The functioning of the human brain goes far beyond a bunch of cells packed together; each of them is able to produce, receive, and transform electrical signals into a concrete response that affects the neighboring cells, counted by hundreds. This image is already complex, but if we say that the electric signals are constituted by […]

Inside a cell, no one can hear you turn into an infective zygote

Inside a cell, no one can hear you turn into an infective zygote

BiomedicineMicrobiology

By Carlos Romá-Mateo

It is common to think that sci-fi writers are extremely creative and smart when they depict alien creatures with weird (and usually disgusting) ways of reproducing, generally using for this purpose the bodies of incautious and often naïve human characters. And they truly are that creative and imaginative, I’m not going to take that credit […]