Dr Marta Pérez Alcántara

Marta is a geneticist and computational biologist with deep expertise in functional genomics, neurodegeneration, and the integration of genetic data with molecular and cellular phenotypes. She holds a DPhil in Genomic Medicine and Statistics from the University of Oxford, where her doctoral work focused on the role of islet development in type 2 diabetes susceptibility, using multi-omics analysis and CRISPR-based validation. She also holds an MSc in Quantitative Genetics and Genome Analysis from the University of Edinburgh and a five-year BSc in Biotechnology from Pablo de Olavide University.

Prior to joining Sequoia Genetics, Marta was a postdoctoral fellow at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, where she led analyses on the genetic determinants of microglial function in neurodegenerative disease. Her work combined single-cell RNA sequencing, eQTL mapping and association analyses of cellular traits in hiPSC-derived microglia, integrated with GWAS and polygenic risk scores for Alzheimer’s and related neurodegenerative diseases. She collaborated closely with wet-lab teams and industry partners at Open Targets to help prioritise therapeutic targets based on genetic evidence.

At Sequoia, Marta plays a key role at the interface of the Translational Science and Data Science teams. She supports the delivery of complex projects where human genetic data guides decision-making in drug discovery and development. Her cross-disciplinary expertise enhances Sequoia’s ability to extract actionable insight from genetic data and translate it into therapeutic direction.