Dr. Durán-Alonso holds a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Glasgow (1998). Prior to these studies, she completed her BSc (Hons) in Cellular and Molecular Pathology at the University of Bristol (1993). Following a short postdoctoral period at the University of Glasgow, she became a postdoctoral scientist at University College London (UCL, UK; 1998-2004), where she worked on Schwann cell development in the laboratory of Profs. Rhona Mirsky and Kristjan R Jessen. In 2005 she was recipient of an Ad futura grant to work for one year as a visiting scientist at the National Institute of Biology in Ljubljana (Slovenia), where she became a senior researcher (2006-2009) and worked on the development of 3D cultures for the study of glioma progression and the effect of various proteolytic systems, as well as on the role of mesenchymal stem cells as possible vectors against gliomas. In 2009 she moved to Spain where she is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Biology and Molecular Genetics (University of Valladolid-CSIC, Valladolid). She has worked on the trans-differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells and fibroblasts into auditory sensory cells whose damage leads to hearing loss. Her main research interests lie now in finding ways to reduce drug-induced hearing loss and the establishment of human inner ear organoid models to carry out ototoxicity and otic cell regeneration studies. She is also a member of the editorial board of FEBS Open Bio and lectures at the University of Valladolid since 2015.