Diversity in Life Sciences

Esperanza Arias, PharmD PhD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pathology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx-NY. After completing her PhD at the Pharmacology Department of the School of Medicine in Autonoma University of Madrid (Spain), she engaged in a Master program in Clinical Research. She integrated her basic and clinical research skills at Ferring Pharmaceuticals, and later as senior clinical research associate at Pfizer (by Quintiles -IQVIA), involved in combinatorial clinical trials for the treatment of cancer. Dr. Arias moved to the US as a Fulbright postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof. A. M. Cuervo where she studied mammalian autophagy in the context of aging and age-related diseases. She was the recipient of the American Federation of Aging Research Fellowship, and the Beatrice and Roy Backus Foundation Research Fellowship.
 
After receiving the Pilot and Feasibility awards from the Marion Bessin Liver Research Center and the Einstein Institute for Aging Research, Dr. Arias was awarded her first R01 grant by the NIH. Her research group, now also part of the Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center, is investigating the connections between autophagy quality control and the metabolic regulation of cancer (as an age-related disease) during initiation, as well as maintenance stages. In particular, the Arias lab is deciphering the contribution of chaperone-mediated autophagy malfunction in the context of metabolic disorders and hepatic damage progression to liver cancer; with special interest in the molecular basis underlying clinical disparities.