Endocrine Abstracts

Born in Madrid, Mercedes Robledo studied at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid where she graduated in Biology in 1987. She then joined the Genetic Department of the same University supervised by J Fernández-Piqueras, working on the cytogenetic and molecular features of heterochromatin. In 1989, under the supervision of J Benitez, she studied the characterization of chromosomal and molecular alterations of lymphomas for which she was awarded her PhD.

In 1995, she was appointed as staff member of the Genetics Service of the Fundación Jiménez Díaz (Madrid). Robledo moved to the CNIO in 2000 as the head of the Hereditary Endocrine Cancer Group. Her group has made substantial contribution to understanding the genetic bases of endocrine tumours, identifying two new genes involved in hereditary pheochromocytomas, and genes responsible for part of the hidden heritability of follicular cell derived thyroid carcinomas. Her research is supported by the FP7-HEALTH program of the European Commission, Spanish Ministry of Health, Autonomous Community of Madrid, Spanish Fundación Mutua Madrileña, and GETNE (Grupo Español de Tumores Neuroendocrinos).

She has authored more than 120 articles on genetic characterization of hereditary diseases as well as seven books chapters on molecular diagnosis in medical genetics. She has supervised 12 doctoral theses.