Andoni Gomez

Department: Molecular Biology
Year of Study:
Undergraduate School: University of Leon (Spain)
Undergraduate Major: UAM University of Madrid (Spain)

Personal Bio

Since I was an undergrad, I participated in different research programs in summer in my former university (University of Leon). My undergrad thesis was focused on studying the impact an antioxidant, quercetin, on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the most common form of chronic liver disease. After graduating with honors, I joint the National Centre for Biotechnology in Spain. During my PhD I focused on studying virus-host interactions that regulate episomal DNA expression. This work allowed me to gain a comprehensive training in cell culture, gene engineering, and image analysis. Particularly, I discovered a negative regulator of episomal DNA expression termed senataxin. Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the laboratory of Dr. Alexander Ploss in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. My research is focused on studying how hepatitis B virus (HBV) establishes and maintains persistence. Since I joint the Ploss lab in 2023, I have trained one senior undergrad and I am currently training another one. Mentoring motivated people is one of the best experiences I have had in Princeton so far and this is the reason why I am joining ReMatch program. I believe that is my duty to prepare new generations for the incoming challenges as my past mentors prepared me.

Fun Fact

My favorite sport is soccer. There is only one thing more important than science to me, soccer. I support the soccer team from my hometown, Real Sociedad (Spain). I never miss a match. I also play soccer at Princeton. Fortunately for my mentees I believe that I am a better scientist than soccer player.
My favorite food is the free food and fortunately there is a lot of free food at Princeton. This is because the best taste is the taste of free. I also watch the latest: Star Wars, Marvel, Game of thrones... TV shows, I try to be updated. Additionally I enjoy playing videogames (FIFA 25 of course).

Research Pitch

Liver cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer-related deaths. 80% of all liver cancers are a result of infections with hepatitis B virus (HBV). Hepatitis B virus frequently causes severe liver diseases to which 900,000 people succumb every year. Unfortunately, this number is estimated to increase significantly over the next two decades. HBV infection can be prevented with a prophylactic vaccine and antiviral therapy can suppress viremia but rarely leads to a cure, i.e. a complete elimination or permanent inactivation of the virus in the body. Concerningly, patients who are on antiviral therapy remain at a highly elevated risk for developing liver cancer. It is widely accepted that any efforts to cure HBV and consequently prevent liver cancer development must break key steps in the HBV life cycle. This is currently impossible because our knowledge of how HBV establishes and maintains persistence is far from complete.
My project aims to identify host factors that are essential for HBV persistence. To accomplish this goal will carry out genetic screens and validate potential hits in advanced cell culture and animal models developed in our laboratory.
Collectively, our data will give us a far more comprehensive view of how HBV establishes persistence in infected individuals and the knowledge generated will help to develop new, potentially curative, therapeutic approaches in our fight against this liver cancer causing virus.

Plans for Summer 2025

Interested in participating in Summer 2025 ReMatch+ program.