In the de la Puente Lab, we are fully committed to having fun while doing cool science. See below what we have been up to lately.
2025
Fall
Back from a great trip to Baltimore for the American Association of Matrix Biology (ASMB) Biennial Meeting! Jess and I loved connecting with colleagues, learning from the community, and sharing our research.
Special thanks to Pharmanest for supporting Jess with a travel award, we’re so proud! Already looking forward to ASMB 2027, see you there!
So proud to share that our lab was represented at the Ovarian Cancer Midwest Forum last week, where our student Amrita Bhagia delivered an outstanding poster presentation and brought home a Top Poster Award!
Huge congratulations, your hard work, creativity, and commitment to advancing ovarian cancer research truly shine # Proud PI # OCResearch # delaPuente Lab
What an inspiring week at BMES 2025 in Sunny San Diego!
So proud of my lab for their outstanding work and presentations this year!
Simona Plesselova delivered an amazing oral presentation on tumor–immune evasion mechanisms.
Amrita Bhagia did an excellent job presenting her poster focused on the omentum microenvironment.
I was also honored to share our work on extracellular matrix dynamics in ovarian cancer.
Conferences like BMES are a powerful reminder of the importance of networking—connecting with colleagues, mentees, mentors, and building new collaborations that push our field forward.
It was also such a delight to celebrate the incredible achievements of our colleagues — congratulations to Prof. Meenal Datta for receiving the Rita Schaffer Award and to Prof Maria A Gonzalez Porras for being named a CMBE Young Innovator!
We were deeply inspired by Prof Linda Griffith, recipient of the Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Award Lecture, Prof Princess Imoukhuede, who delivered the Social Impact Lecture, Prof Stacey Finley, honored with the Mid-Career Award and Prof Cindy Reinhart-King, recipient of Herbert Voigt Distinguished Service Award— strong women with strong messages that resonated across the BME community.
Thrilled as well about the launch of the new Women’s Health SIG, and inspired by this new horizon for advancing women’s health research.
We return full of ideas and energized, excited to keep building on the momentum and already looking forward to next year.
#BMES2025 #TeamScience #Mentorship #Collaboration #EngineeringCancer #OvarianCancer #WomenInBME #WomensHealth
Pilar had the opportunity to be invited as a seminar speaker in the Bioengineering Seminar Series in the Department of Bioengineering at University of Colorado , Denver, Anschutz Medical Center.
A heartfelt thank you to our wonderful collaborator Brisa Peña for the generous hospitality and for hosting me in her lab to measure our samples on the AFM.
It was a rewarding visit — filled with great conversations, collaboration, and plenty of fun. Excited to dive into the data and see where this work takes us next!
Dr. de la Puente received an International Excellence Award from her hometown Leon, Spain. The award was presented by the Economist College Association and Fundación Monteleon honoring individuals who have brought distinction to their community through outstanding contributions abroad.
September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Know the signs!
Summer
We wrapped up an incredible summer with our SPUR intern, Karla S. Arcelay-Garcia, who returned for a second year and absolutely shined. On her final day, she stood confidently at the symposium, defending her poster with clarity, depth, and so much heart. Watching her growth over these two summers has been inspiring, she came back more driven, more curious, and even more fearless. We’re incredibly proud of everything she’s accomplished and can’t wait to see what she tackles next. Well done, Karla! Your future is bright, and we’re honored to be a small part of your journey.
We’d like to give a huge thank you to PROMISE high school student Naomi Jespersen for an inspiring and energizing interview! Your curiosity, thoughful questions, and passion for learning remind us exactly why we love what we do. #PROMISE #FutureLeaders #womeinInSTEM
Read the full interview here bit.ly/3ZXa6qo
So Proud of the de la Puente lab presence in the Eastern South Dakota Research Symposium. Simona received Best Oral Presentation Award, Amrita was selected an one of the 4 trainees to give an oral, and Karla presented poster. Way to go team. Grateful for the opportunity to share our work.
This summer, we welcome again Karla Arcelay Garcia in the de la Puente as returner to the SPUR program. Looking forward to the amazing discoveries she will bring to the lab
May
Dr. Pilar de la Puente has received an R37 MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health—an honor only given to researchers whose grant proposals are considered outstanding by NIH reviewers.
She was awarded $2.75 million for her project, “Elucidating spatiotemporal dynamics of nascent extracellular matrix in response to platinum treatment in ovarian cancer,” which will explore how the tumor environment changes during treatment using tissue engineering and metabolic labeling approaches.
Today, on #WorldOvarianCancerDay, the delaPuenteLab stands with patients, families, and advocates—driven by science, our lab is committed to advancing discoveries that bring hope and improve outcomes in ovarian cancer, we are not stopping! So proud of these strong ladies #OvarianCancerAwareness #CancerResearch #WomenInSTEM
April
Excited to host 3 interns this spring. Taylor Woolley and Kylee McDaniel from Mount Marty University and Anita Saakyan as High School intern. Proud of their great work
March
Congratulations to the de la Puente Lab team, they got 1st place on the chemical lab labeling challenge organized by the Sanford Research safety committee! Enjoy your yummy prizes and thanks for your “safe” and hard work
Excited to quick start the Meet a Researcher Event. Interested to learn what we do in the lab and do a hands-on activity? Register and Join us! Open to the public. Thanks to American Cancer Society and Sanford Research for the support!
Dr. Maria Gonzalez Porras and Dr. de la Puente are excited to organize the next ASMB e-symposia focused on the “Intersection of Women’s Health and the ECM” on March 26. Short talks will be selected from abstracts. Join us #womenshealth #ECM #ASMB
February
Happy #International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This year, I was asked to record a video to talk about what a scientist do and bring some contemporary role models to elementary school kids in my home country, Spain. Cute flyer of what they learn (in Spanish)
I also want to take this opportunity to highlight our 100% women-led lab. I am inspired daily by each of these ladies. Simona Plesselova, Kristin Calar, Hailey Axemaker, and Amrita Bhagia, you are all strong role models.
Promote, empower, highlight, and support women and girls to pursue careers in science. #WomenInSTEM
Feb 7, we stand together to raise #HeartHealthAwareness join in by wearing red! We also celebrate all #ECMatrix science as it is vital research that deepens our understanding of #Women’s No. 1 killer worldwide. Prioritize #WomensHeartHealth & make a difference!
January
Congratulations to MD/PhD student Amrita Bhagia. She has been awarded an Independent Research Award for her work on microfluidics from University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine #microfluidics #delapuentelab #proudPI
