Tomás Alarcón

Full professor at CRM
Research area: Mathematical Modelling

PhD in Physics obtained at UB (2000)

Biosketch

I studied Physics for my Bachelor degree and went on to earn a PhD in Physics (November 2000). Upon award of my PhD degree, I moved to Oxford where I took up a postdoc position at the Centre for Mathematical Biology, Mathematical Institute, where I started my research in modelling tumour growth working with Helen Byrne (Nottingham) and Philip Maini (Oxford), a subject that I still pursue. After three years in Oxford (from January 2001 to December 2003), I moved to London as a postdoc at the Bioinformatics Unit, University College London, with Karen Page (now in the Mathematics Department). There I worked in modelling tumour dormancy and the dynamics of cell surface receptors. In December 2006, after a short stay in Madrid, I joined the programme Complexity and Networks, lead by Henrik Jensen, at Imperial College, London as a postdoc to work in evolutionary processes under epigenetic regulation. In December 2009, I joined the Mathematical Biology group in the Basque Centre for Applied Mathematics (BCAM) as a BCAM researcher and Group Leader. As of November 2010, I work at the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (Bellaterra, Barcelona) where I lead the Computational & Mathematical Biology group.

In October 2015 I was appointed to an ICREA Research Professorship at CRM

Current and previous positions

  • November 2010 — Present. Senior Researcher, Centre de Recerca Matemàtica
  • December 2009 — October 2010. Senior Researcher, Basque Centre for Applied Mathematics
  • December 2006 — November 2009. Postdoc, Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Imperial College London
  • December 2003 — August 2006. Postdoc, Bioinformatics Unit, University College London
  • January 2001 — December 2003. Postdoc, Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford
     

Prizes, awards, honors and distinctions
Fundación Banco Santander Distinguished Visitor to the Dep. Applied Mathematics of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, September—November 2006.

Research lines

  • Stochastic multi-scale modelling of tumour growth and angiogenesis
  • Multiple scale methods in stochastic systems
  • Stochastic modelling in cell biology
  • Population dynamics in Bio-medicine
  • Microfluidics and microrheology of bio-fluids

Selected publications

  • T. Alarcon, H.M. Byrne, and P.K. Maini. A multiple scale model of tumour growth. Multiscale Model. Sim. 3, 440-475 (2005).
  • M.R. Owen, T. Alarcon, H.M. Byrne, and P.K. Maini. Angiogenesis and vascular remodelling in normal and cancerous tissues. J. Math. Biol. 58, 689-721 (2009).
  • L. Willis, T. Alarcon, G. Elia, J.L. Jones, N. Wright, T.A. Graham, I.P.M. Tomlinson, K.M. Page. Breast cancer dormancy can be maintained by a small number of micrometastases. Cancer Res. 70, 4310-4317 (2010).
  • J.A. Menendez, J. Joven, S. Cufi, B. Corominas-Faja, C. Oliveras-Ferraros, E. Cuyas, B. Martin-Castillo, E. Lopez-Bonet, T. Alarcon, A Vazquez-Martin. The Warburg effect version 2.0: Metabolic reprogramming of cancer stem cells. Cell Cycle. 18, 1166-1179 (2013).
  • R. de la Cruz, P. Guerrero, F. Spill, T. Alarcon. The effects of intrinsic noise on the behaviour of bistable cell regulatory systems under quasi-steady state conditions. J. Chem. Phys. 143, 074105 (2015).