In its 26 meters long and almost 5 high, the mural brings together some of the essential elements of Ana Conesa’s research and life: from the cell, a chain of RNA, a microscope and a computer -as a reference for the computational techniques he is currently working with, even with a ball of the world in his hands-a symbol of the international dimension of his science and concern for the environment. And, as a finishing touch, the portrait of Ana Conesa. All this with bright, cheerful and very vivid colors, characteristic feature of the work of the artist cordobesa.
"No doubt, it has been a great challenge for me. I had never painted such a large mural and I am very happy with the result. And for that has been fundamental both Ana, who helped me a lot to prepare the outline, as the whole school. It was very nice to see how the boys and girls were watching the evolution of the mural, wondering what each thing was, who was the woman I was painting. For me, this initiative is wonderful, because it makes known to great scientists like Ana and, in addition, it also makes us visible to women artists", said Clara Gómez Campos.
"A beautiful tribute and, in addition, in my neighborhood and the university where I studied"
For her part, Ana Conesa has shown her "enormous satisfaction for this precious homage that gives me 'Women of Science' and even more, when it is in my neighborhood and comes from the university where I studied".
Agronomist by the UPV, Ana Conesa is currently a research professor at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) at the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (i2SysBio), a joint centre of the CSIC and the University of Valencia. And it was the first bioinformatics to enter the Royal Academy of Engineering in Spain.
Conesa has pointed out that the mural represents very well Bioinformatics, "a discipline that is not very known but which has been fundamental to achieve many of the most recent advances in Biomedicine. In addition, it is an area where women are under-represented, which is why this mural is even more important, because it helps our visibility, in particular, and of Bioinformatics in general".
41 murals, 82 female protagonists
Women of Science is a project that has already become a national reference. In fact, it has been distinguished with important awards: in 2022, it received the prize for the best singular project in the Prismas -the most important prizes in Spain in scientific dissemination; and in 2019 was chosen as the best dissemination project by the National Network of Scientific Culture and Innovation Units (UCC+i).
With the mural in tribute to Ana Conesa, the project already has 41 works by other artists. And in just over a week, and as a closing to the events that it has organized within the framework of 11F, will open number 42, which pays tribute in this case to the Catalan researcher Carme Torras. Work of the Valencian artist Irene Remón, is located in the IES Benicalap. The project has been supported since its inception in 2019 by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) of the Ministry of Science and Innovation.
About Ana Conesa Cegarra
Professor of Research at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and Professor of Courtesy at the University of Florida (USA), she is a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering in Spain, Honorary Member of the Spanish Society for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, and member of the International Society for Computational Biology Directors' Team.
His laboratory, Genomics of Gene Expression, develops computational methods for studying transcriptome functionality and integrating multi-omics data for modeling developmental and disease processes. His lab has created more than twenty software tools that are used by tens of thousands of researchers worldwide. It has pioneered the development of computational methods for applying single-molecule sequencing technologies to the study of transcriptome.
Has led numerous international projects and consortia in computational biology, coordinating more than thirty international teams and receiving funding from the European Commission, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation and NASA. She is an advisor to funding agencies and research institutes around the world, and has created and delivered bioinformatics courses on five continents. She has been the founder and scientific director of the start-up Biobam Bioinformatics, a company that develops user-friendly software for genomic research.