Our Team

Maria Lara graduated with a BSc in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Barcelona in 2018 and consequently she pursued an MSc in Biomedical Sciences with a specialization in Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine and the University of Antwerp. Her Master's thesis was based on the use of molecular epidemiology to perform molecular surveillance of Plasmodium parasites in Vietnam. After finalizing her MSc and working for a year at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, she moved to Maastricht where she started a MSc in Global Health at Maastricht University. In her second MSc, she focused on investigating the association between non-viral sexually transmitted infections and adverse pregnancy outcome among pregnant women living in Latin America and the Caribbean.

She moved back to Barcelona in 2022, where she started working at the Malaria Immunology group as a laboratory technician with an INVESTIGO grant from Generalitat de Catalunya. Since April 2023, she is a predoctoral fellow working on understanding the antibody immune response after RTS,S/AS01E vaccination in an African cohort of children and infants.

Lines of research

• Immunogenicity
• Mode of action
• Correlates of protection of malaria vaccines
• Systems biology

Main publications

• Rubio, R., Macià, D., Barrios, D., Vidal, M., Jiménez, A., Molinos, L., Díaz, N., Canyelles, M., Lara-Escandell. M., Planchais, C., Santamaria, P., Carolis, C., Izquierdo, L., Aguilar, R., Moncunill, G., Dobaño, C. High-resolution kinetics and celular determinants of SARS-CoV-2 antibody response over two years after COVID-19 vaccination. Microbes and Infection. 2024 Sep 17; doi.org/10.1016/j.micinf.2024.105423.