Irinka Castanon

Irinka Castanon is a Senior Staff Scientist at St. Anna Children's Cancer Research Institute (CCRI) since January 2021, specializing in rare diseases and immunology. Previously, Castanon served as a Maître Assistante at the University of Geneva's Biochemistry Department from July 2013 to April 2022, focusing on a multidisciplinary approach to study membrane-cytoskeleton interactions in zebrafish. Additional roles at the University of Geneva included scientific collaborator, facility manager, and editor of a review series on Cell Differentiation. Prior postdoctoral research was conducted at the Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, examining Wnt/PCP pathway functions, and at the Gonzalez-Gaitan lab at the University of Geneva, where Castanon researched cytoskeleton-membrane interactions during cell division in zebrafish embryos. Castanon's academic journey began as a graduate student at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, exploring Notch-Ras signaling pathways. Education includes a PhD in Biology from the University of Valencia and postdoctoral training at the Max-Planck Institute.