Maria Suarez Diez

Prof. Maria Suarez Diez is a Professor and Chairholder of the Laboratory of Systems and Synthetic Biology at Wageningen University & Research. She holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Oviedo (Spain) and has held post-doctoral positions at École Polytechnique (France), Genopole (France), and Helmholtz-Zentrum (Germany). Her research focuses on mathematical modeling of cellular networks, aiming to understand how cells interact with each other and their environment. She leads a laboratory dedicated to integrating systems biology approaches with synthetic biology to advance biotechnology applications.

Education:

• PhD in Physics, University of Oviedo, Spain
• Post-doctoral positions at École Polytechnique, Genopole, and Helmholtz-Zentrum

Research Interests:

• Mathematical modeling of cellular dynamics
• Systems biology applications in microbial engineering
• Development of digital twins for biological systems
• Metabolic pathway optimization

Professional Activities:

• Member of the Board of the Dutch Biotechnology Association (NBV; since 2023)
• Vice Chair of NBV (2023–2025), to assume Chair in 2025

Lab & Projects:

• Focus on microbial oil production, metabolic engineering, and PBPK modeling
• Projects include optimizing microbial strains for cost-effective biofuel production
• Integration of omics data for systems-level understanding