Sandra joined NIBSC in 2015 as a Senior Scientist. She has over 15 years’ experience in applied immunology and the development of in vitro cell-based bioassays and immunoassays for both biotherapeutics and vaccines.
Sandra studied in the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain where she received her Ph.D. working in collaboration with the Federal Institute for Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. She worked as a post-doctoral scientist at NIBSC evaluating the toxicological and immunological properties of recombinant toxin constructs as vaccine candidates and later investigating the safety and protective mechanisms of combination bacterial vaccines.
In 2010, she joined Lonza Biologics Applied Protein Services in Cambridge, U.K. where she worked on bioassay development as well as preclinical and clinical in vitro immunogenicity assessment of a wide portfolio of biological products and targets. Her role included leading customer-orientated and technical development projects within multidisciplinary teams.
Sandra is currently working on the development of bioassay standards for therapeutic Monoclonal Antibodies (mAbs). She is also involved in a number of research projects investigating structure-function relationships in the context of safety and efficacy of biotherapeutic mAbs, with an interest in biosimilars.