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Declined by Timtrent 4 months ago. Last edited by Timtrent 4 months ago. Reviewer: Inform author.

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Karina Pombo García

Karina Pombo García is a Galician-born biophysicist and group leader in advanced fluorescence microscopy, cell biology, and biomolecular phase separation. She is a Principal Investigator at the Rosalind Franklin Institute^[1] and an affiliated Principal Investigator at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Her research focuses on tight junction biology, biomolecular condensates, phase transitions, and the development of cutting-edge imaging technologies including FLIM, FCS, and STED microscopy.

Early Life and Education

Karina Pombo García was born in Galicia, Spain. She completed her undergraduate and early academic training in Galicia before moving to Europe to pursue graduate studies in biophysics and quantitative cell biology.

She earned her PhD in Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, specializing in protein phase behavior and biophysical mechanisms underlying cellular organization.

Career

Pombo García conducted postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics^[2] in Dresden, Germany, where she worked in advanced fluorescence microscopy, protein phase separation, and tight junction organization. Her research in Dresden included collaborations with leaders in the biomolecular condensates field.

She later joined the Rosalind Franklin Institute (RFI)^[3] in the United Kingdom as a Group Leader, establishing the Pombo García Lab. She is also affiliated with the University of Oxford, where she contributes to interdisciplinary research across cell biology, biophysics, and imaging sciences.

Research

Pombo García’s research integrates biophysics, advanced microscopy, and cell biology to investigate how proteins organize within cells and tissues. Her group focuses on four major themes:

Tight Junction Biology

She studies the nanoscale structure and dynamics of tight junction proteins, including claudins, ZO-1, and E-cadherin, to understand epithelial barrier formation and polarity.

Biomolecular Phase Separation

Her work explores how multivalent protein interactions and phase transitions drive the assembly of biomolecular condensates, including those associated with tight junctions and cell polarity.

Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy

Her laboratory develops and applies super-resolution and quantitative fluorescence techniques, including:

FLIM (Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy)
FCS (Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy)
STED (Stimulated Emission Depletion Microscopy)
Single-molecule and live-cell imaging

These methods are used to visualize protein organization in living cells and in intestinal organoids, ranging from fetal to adult developmental stages.

Organoid Biology

Her team uses intestinal organoids to map the development and maturation of epithelial junctional complexes and to model disease states.

Notable Publications

Representative publications include studies on:

Phase separation of tight junction proteins
Nanoscale architecture of epithelial junctions
Membrane wetting and cell polarity
Super-resolution imaging methodologies

Collaborators

Pombo García has collaborated with several prominent researchers, including:

Dr. Tony Hyman (Max Planck Institute, Dresden, Germany)
Frank Jülicher
Omar Adame-Arana
Riccardo Maraspini
Oliver Beutel

Her lab also collaborates internally with:

Michael Grange Group (Oxford)
Quantum imaging specialists at the RFI

Pombo García Lab Members

Current team members include:

Dimitrios Ioannidis – PhD student, tight junction imaging
Xuemeng Chen – PhD student, condensate biophysics
Konstantina Karagianni – PhD student, glycosylation dynamics
Rebecca Hobbs – PhD student, junctional protein segregation
Soumadipta Mazumdar – Research Assistant, organoids and STED imaging
Alexander Carneiro – Researcher, protein interactions & structural biology
Julian Pietsch – Imaging analysis specialist

Awards and Recognition

External Links

Pombo García Lab Website: https://pombogarcialab.com^[4]
Rosalind Franklin Institute Profile
Google Scholar: ‪Karina Pombo-Garcia‬ - ‪Google Scholar‬

User:Souma1997/sandbox

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