Dr. Pilar Guerrero
Profesora Titular de Universidades
Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos (GISC)
Dept. de Matemáticas (office 2.2D31)
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Avda. de la Universidad 30
28911 Leganés, Madrid, Spain
phone: +34 916249466
Research interest
Our projects focus on building hybrid models that combine reaction-diffusion equations, stochastic vertex models, and multiscale simulations. We aim to explore how parameters such as friction coefficients and E-cadherin dysfunction influence cellular processes like tissue behavior and early cancer invasion dynamics. By integrating computational physics and biology, we strive to uncover complex biological systems and drive innovation in research.
Ongoing work continues to refine these models, especially in cancer dynamics. Vertex models are critical for understanding tissue mechanics, cell packing, and how these disruptions relate to disease, offering new insights into tissue-level dynamics.
ABOUT ME
I am an Associate Professor (Profesora Titular de Universidad) in the Department of Mathematics at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and a member of the Interdisciplinary Group of Complex Systems (GISC). In November 2026 I received the UC3M Excellence Award 2025 in the category for young doctoral researchers.
I started in mathematical analysis. My PhD at the University of Granada, supervised by José Luis López and defended in 2010, studied qualitative properties of partial differential equations from developmental biology and quantum mechanics, with a focus on diffusion, dispersion and dissipation. A Junta de Andalucía research project funded the thesis.
After the PhD I moved to the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica in Barcelona as a postdoctoral researcher with Tomás Alarcón. Over two and a half years I worked on multiscale stochastic models of cancer and the cell cycle, and spent a visiting period at the Oxford Centre for Collaborative Applied Mathematics (OCCAM) with Helen Byrne and Philip Maini.
In July 2013 I joined University College London, where I worked for five years with Karen Page (UCL) and James Briscoe (National Institute for Medical Research, later the Francis Crick Institute). There I built three-dimensional and stochastic models of neural tube development in vertebrate embryos, side by side with the biologists who ran the experiments.
I returned to Spain in September 2018 as Profesora Ayudante Doctor (Assistant Professor) at UC3M and became Profesora Titular (Associate Professor) in May 2022. Since then, I have focused on stochastic vertex models, tissue mechanics and cancer dynamics. I co-lead the national project BASIC (Biological And Social Complexity), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, with Alberto Antonioni. I present this work at meetings such as ECMTB and ECCOMAS, and in July 2026 I taught the course Bridging the Scales: Stochastic and Hybrid Modelling of Cellular Populations at the GEFENOL Summer School on Statistical Physics of Complex Systems.