Cristina is a 5th year Postdoctoral Associate at the Vascular Medicine Institute. She obtained her Ph.D. (2015) in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry in the “Universidad Complutense” in Madrid, Spain and she did a previous postdoc at OHSU in Portland, OR. Cristina is passionate about non-coding-RNAs and she is currently focused on how small and long-non-coding-RNAs influence vascular cell identity in response to stress. Cristina recently relocated to Pittsburgh to work on the Gomez lab to study the crosstalk of different epigenetic mechanisms (histone modifications, DNA methylation, and non-coding-RNAs) in vascular smooth muscle cells. Before moving to Pittsburgh, Cristina was a board member of the OHSU Postdoc Association and she is currently involved with ECUSA (Spanish Scientist in the USA) enhancing the visibility of early-career scientists.

Cristina loves a good cup of coffee and rock music. As an introvert herself, she is looking forward to enhancing postdoc networking on campus making everyone to feel include and welcomed.

Cristina can be contacted at espinosa@pitt.edu.