Dr Paloma Garcia PhD

Dr Paloma Garcia

Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences
Associate Professor of Stem Cells and Genome Stability

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 4093
Email
p.garcia@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@PgGarcialab
View my research portal
Address
Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

The Garcia group research interest is to understand the molecular mechanisms that maintain genome integrity in stem cells and how loss of genome integrity leads to development of cancer during ageing. Dr Poloma Garcia's research focuses on both embryonic stem cells ESC/iPSC and adult stem cells, in particular haemopoietic stem cells and breast cancer initiating cells.

Qualifications

Principal Investigator in Stem cells and genome stability:

  • PhD (1997) Medical School, Universidad Autónoma of Madrid
  • BSc Biology (1994) School of Biology, Universidad Autónoma of Madrid

Biography

Paloma Garcia studied Biology at the Universidad Autonoma of Madrid, Spain and joined the lab of Professor Carmela Cales at the School of Medicine (Universidad Autonoma, Madrid) for a PhD project studying the molecular mechanisms leading to the establishment of endoreplicative cycles in megakaryocytes (1994-1997). During this period Paloma was awarded an EMBO short term fellowship to perform some of these studies at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM), Oxford, under the supervision of Professor Jon Frampton. 

Following her PhD work, Paloma was awarded a Marie Curie fellowship to join Professor Frampton lab in WIMM, Oxford, where she established a conditional gene deletion approach to investigate MybL2 function and started working on stem/progenitor cell properties and the development of blood disorders. 

In 2002 she moved to University of Birmingham as a senior postdoctoral researcher funded through the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research (LLR). She was able to demonstrate that correct levels of MybL2 are necessary to maintain genome stability in human haemopoietic cells, and that low levels result in DNA fragmentation and chromosome rearrangements. 

García’s independent research group was established in 2009, once she was awarded a Researcher Fellow position at the University of Birmingham through the Science City Research Alliance scheme (SCRA). Using her mouse model, she demonstrated the importance of MybL2 in the development of blood disorders during ageing. She also led the investigation that revealed a role for MybL2 in the elongation rate of replication forks in ESC.

She now holds an Associate Professor position at the University of Birmingham

Teaching

Undergraduate

  • Stem cell Module Biomedical Materials Science BMedSc
  • From Genes to therapy Module Biomedical Materials Science BMedSc (BMedSci)
  • Experimental immunology Module Biomedical Materials Science BMedSc 
  • Research taster Medicine and Surgery MBChB

Masters

  • MSc Mol Mech Immunol

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Paloma Garcia is interested in supervising doctoral research students in the following areas:

  • molecular mechanisms controlling genome stability in embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells
  • molecular mechanisms of somatic reprogramming to induced pluripotent stem cells
  • molecular mechanisms underlying blood disorders during ageing

Self-funded PhD students are welcome to apply.

Research

  • iPSC as disease modelling system to understand MDS progression and therapy resistance.
  • MYBL2 in Breast cancer stem/initiating cells. 
  • Mechanisms regulating proliferation and genomic stability in embryonic stem cells and somatic cells, with a special focus into the role of the transcription factor MybL2 (B-Myb) at the interplay between DNA replication and DNA repair.
  • Investigation of the molecular basis behind the deletion of chromosome 20q (del20q), and in particular the role of MybL2 haploinsufficiency in the development of haematological diseases.

Birmingham University Stem Cell Centre (BUSCC)

Collaborators

Other activities

  • Biological Safety Officer (BSO) for the School of Medicine Science in the College of Medicine and Health, University of Birmingham
  • Member of the Mercia Stem Cell Alliance (MSCA)
  • Member of Birmingham University Stem Cell Centre (BUSCC)
  • Reviewer for grant funding bodies and journals.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Cuminetti, V, Boet, E, Heugel, M, Konieczny, J, Bernal, A, Gomez, MJ, Grimolizzi, F, Vilaplana-Lopera, N, Ferré, M, Villatoro, A, Pandey, DP, Torroja, C, Taman, H, Paulssen, RH, Vogl, T, Heckman, CA, Vik, A, Giovinazzo, G, van Gastel, N, García, P, Sánchez-Cabo, F, Sarry, J-E & Arranz, L 2026, 'Succinate receptor 1 restricts hematopoiesis and prevents acute myeloid leukemia progression', Nature Communications, vol. 17, no. 1, 2403. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68906-2

Almaghrabi, R, Alyahyawi, Y, Keane, P, Mian, SA, Habel, K, Atkinson, A, Ward, C, Bayley, R, Sargas, C, Menendez, P, Murphy, GJ, Sobahy, T, Baghdadi, MA, Flemban, AF, Kabrah, SM, Torres-Ruiz, R, Papapetrou, EP, Akerman, I, Raghavan, M, Barragan, E, Bonnet, D, Bonifer, C & Garcia, P 2025, 'A heterozygous CEBPA mutation disrupting the bZIP domain in a RUNX1 and SRSF2 mutational background causes MDS disease progression', Nature Communications, vol. 16, no. 1, 5489. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60192-8

Gillespie, MS, Chiang, K, Regan-Mochrie, GL, Choi, S-Y, Ward, CM, Sahay, D, Garcia, P, Arnold, R & Davies, CC 2025, 'PRMT5-regulated splicing of DNA repair genes drives chemoresistance in breast cancer stem cells', Oncogene, vol. 44, pp. 862-876. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-024-03264-1

Sledziowska, M, Winczura, K, Jones, M, Almaghrabi, R, Mischo, H, Hebenstreit, D, Garcia, P & Grzechnik, P 2023, 'Non-coding RNAs associated with Prader-Willi syndrome regulate transcription of neurodevelopmental genes in human induced pluripotent stem cells', Human Molecular Genetics, vol. 32, no. 4, ddac228, pp. 608–620. https://doi.org/10.1093/hmg/ddac228

Vilaplana-Lopera, N, Cuminetti, V, Almaghrabi, R, Papatzikas, G, Rout, AK, Jeeves, M, González, E, Alyahyawi, Y, Cunningham, A, Erdem, A, Schnütgen, F, Raghavan, M, Potluri, S, Cazier, J-B, Schuringa, JJ, Reed, MAC, Arranz, L, Günther, U & Garcia, P 2022, 'Crosstalk between AML and stromal cells triggers acetate secretion through the metabolic rewiring of stromal cells', eLife, vol. 11, e75908. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.75908

Blakemore, D, Vilaplana-Lopera, N, Almaghrabi, R, Gonzalez, E, Moya, M, Ward, C, Murphy, G, Gambus, A, Petermann, E, Stewart, GS & García, P 2021, 'MYBL2 and ATM suppress replication stress in pluripotent stem cells', EMBO Reports, vol. 22, no. 5, e51120. https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.202051120

Wang, J, Rojas, P, Mao, J, Muste Sadurni, M, Garnier, O, Xiao, S, Higgs, M, Garcia, P & Saponaro, M 2021, 'Persistence of RNA transcription during DNA replication delays duplication of transcription start sites until G2/M', Cell Reports, vol. 34, no. 7, 108759. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2021.108759

Gleneadie, HJ, Baker, AH, Batis, N, Bryant, J, Jiang, Y, Clokie, SJH, Mehanna, H, Garcia, P, Gendoo, DMA, Roberts, S, Burley, M, Molinolo, AA, Gutkind, JS, Scheven, BA, Cooper, PR, Parish, JL, Khanim, FL & Wiench, M 2021, 'The anti-tumour activity of DNA methylation inhibitor 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine is enhanced by the common analgesic paracetamol through induction of oxidative stress', Cancer Letters, vol. 501, pp. 172-186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canlet.2020.12.029

Ward, C, Cauchy, P, Garcia, P, Frampton, J, Esteban, MA & Volpe, G 2020, 'High WBP5 expression correlates with elevation of HOX genes levels and is associated with inferior survival in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia', Scientific Reports, vol. 10, no. 1, 3505. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-60480-x

Munhoa-Hoyos, I, Halsall, J, Araolaza, M, Ward, C, Garcia, I, Urizar-Arenaza, I, Gianzo, M, Garcia, P, Turner, B & Subiran, N 2020, 'Morphine leads to global genome changes in H3K27me3 levels via a Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) self-regulatory mechanism in mESCs', Clinical epigenetics, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 170. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13148-020-00955-w

Volpe, G, Cauchy, P, Walton, DS, Ward, C, Blakemore, D, Bayley, R, Clarke, ML, Schmidt, L, Nerlov, C, Garcia, P, Dumon, S, Grebien, F & Frampton, J 2019, 'Dependence on Myb expression is attenuated in myeloid leukaemia with N-terminal CEBPA mutations', Life Science Alliance, vol. 2, no. 2, e201800207. https://doi.org/10.26508/lsa.201800207

Ward, C, Volpe, G, Cauchy, P, Ptasinska, A, Al Maghrabi, R, Blakemore, D, Nafria, M, Kestner, D, Frampton, J, Murphy, G, Buganim, Y, Kaji, K & Garcia, P 2018, 'Fine-tuning Mybl2 is required for proper mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition during somatic reprogramming', Cell Reports, vol. 24, no. 6, pp. 1496-1511.e8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2018.07.026

Comment/debate

Ward, C, Cauchy, P, Garcia, P, Frampton, J, Esteban, MA & Volpe, G 2020, 'Author Correction: High WBP5 expression correlates with elevation of HOX genes levels and is associated with inferior survival in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (Scientific Reports, (2020), 10, 1, (3505), 10.1038/s41598-020-60480-x)', Scientific Reports, vol. 10, no. 1, 13109. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-70049-3

Preprint

Vilaplana-Lopera, N, Almaghrabi, R, Papatzikas, G, González, E, Cunningham, A, Erdem, A, Schnuetgen, F, Raghavan, M, Potluri, S, Cazier, J, Schuringa, JJ, Reed, MAC, Günther, UL & Garcia, P 2021 'Crosstalk between AML and stromal cells triggers acetate secretion through the metabolic rewiring of stromal cells' bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.21.427406

Review article

Bayley, R, Ward, C & Garcia, P 2020, 'MYBL2 amplification in breast cancer: Molecular mechanisms and therapeutic potential', Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Reviews on Cancer, vol. 1874, no. 2, 188407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbcan.2020.188407

View all publications in research portal