Dr. Cruz is a mid-career research scientist specialising in molecular and cellular biology, focused on T cell activation and cancer immunology. She completed her PhD studies on the immune evasion strategies of Coronaviruses at the National Centre of Biotechnology in Spain (2011).
In 2013, Dr. Cruz started a post-doctoral position at the Heinrich Pette Institute in Germany, supported by a Bayer-Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation grant, where she studied the role of innate immunity at the portal of entry of human viruses. In 2015, she joined the A/Prof. Wells Group at Frazer Institute, being awarded a 3-year UQ early career fellowship to investigate the immunology of epithelial cancers.
In 2019, under the mentorship of Professor Ian Frazer, Dr. Cruz was awarded a 5-year GPRWM Foundation grant to develop her research program focused on the immune suppression mechanisms in cancer patients. Currently, she leads Cancer Immunology and Therapy group at the Translational Research Institute. Her research aims to understand the immunosuppression processes in epithelial cancers, which is key to developing therapeutic strategies that support immune function in patients. Her team employs high-throughput technologies like 10X Genomics Spatial Visium, Nanostring DSP GeoMX, Phenocycler, and multiparametric flow cytometry to profile patient tissue samples.