Sandra Ferreiro López

Biotechnologist from the Francisco de Vitoria University, where she was recognized with two scholarships for outstanding academic records. She began her research career in Newcastle, participating in a project on left-right asymmetry, work for which she received the award for best poster at the Cardiovascular Research Center Trainees Meeting Conference (2018). Subsequently, she completed a Master’s degree in Computational Biology at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, where she researched the metabolic interaction networks of the microbiome in patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis at the CBGP, a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (2020).

Since 2020, she has been developing her work as a bioinformatician at ADNTRO, focused on genetic data analysis and the development of predictive machine learning models applied to genetics, including Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS) and pharmacogenetics. She has experience in handling R, Python, SQL, Codex, and Gemini CLI, as well as in the use of UK Biobank data, with official certification. Her work also covers the annotation and filtering of variants with potential clinical implications, the development of proprietary tools for variant cleaning, HLA typing inference through SNPs, and the application of phasing, imputation, and clustering methodologies, along with the critical review of GWAS literature.

She is the first author of the work published with PMID: 40282337, focused on the development of a predictive model for late-onset Alzheimer’s, presented at the I Congress of the Spanish Society of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (SEBiBC). Additionally, she has presented a scientific poster on a predictive model for pulmonary embolism at the IV Interdisciplinary Congress of Human Genetics. She has participated in prominent congresses and sector meetings, such as BioSpain 2021 and 2023, the Congress of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology 2024, and South Summit Valencia Health & Wellbeing, and has intervened as a collaborator in the Genetic Testing course by Genotipia. She has also had a prominent participation in the round table on PRS and imputation organized by DNAnexus.

Publications

• Development of a k-Nearest Neighbors Model for the Prediction of Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Risk by Combining Polygenic Risk Scores and Phenotypic Variables
• Enhancing Type 1 Diabetes Polygenic Risk Prediction through Neural Networks and Entropy-Derived Insights

Interviews

• Can genetics determine your mental health? A single gene defines how we respond to stress
• Pharmacogenetics and weight loss: how genes influence the efficacy of Saxenda
• Three tips from a dermatologist for summer skin care: “Sunlight can damage our DNA”
• Taking a DNA test: the latest trend among entrepreneurs to beat stress