Affiliation: SA Pathology and University of South Australia, Centre for Cancer Biology, Australia

Dr. Gomez is an ARC Future Fellow and Group Leader at the Centre for Cancer Biology (CCB), University of South Australia. His work has contributed to the elucidation of the signaling pathways involved in the generation of cellular forces and how it influences tissue-level mechanics and organization. By combining experimentation and theory, his work led to discoveries in the field, which include i) how the centralspindlin complex contributes to RhoA signaling and junctional tension in epithelial cells (Nature Cell Biology, 2012); ii) how regulation of actin stability leads to intrajunctional patterns of tension that is required for the integration of cells in epithelia (Nature Cell Biology, 2014) and iii) how myosin II contributes to the robustness of RhoA signalling at adherens junctions (Nature Cell Biology, 2015). In addition, he has contributed to seminal papers that have contributed in understanding  tissue integrity and mechanosensitive feedbacks loops, and how these, are hijacked by cancer cells to escape and invade the surrounding tissue (Teo and Gomez, et al, Developmental Cell 2020, Mol Biol Cell 2020).

He has more than 30 publications in the last 5 years including first/senior/corresponding author articles in Nature Cell Biology (2015), Developmental Cell (2015,2016, 2018, 2020), Nature Communications (2015, 2016, 2016, 2017,), Molecular Biology of the Cell (2015, 2016, 2017) and PLoS Computational Biology (2017), Journal of Clinical Investigation (2018). Dr. Gomez has also developed several methods for the analysis high-content imaging and migration/invasion in 2D and 3D systems and to study glioblastoma using brain organoids.