Dr Maria Velasco-Garcia

Senior Lecturer In Analytical Science

School of Life, Health & Chemical Sciences

maria.velasco@open.ac.uk

Biography

Research interests

My main research theme has been new and emerging bio-analytical and bio-diagnostic techniques (particularly chemical sensors and biosensors and their exploitation at the point-of care in medical and veterinary diagnostics), collaborating with research groups in UK (Bristol, Cranfield and Cambridge University) and Europe (Univesita de Roma-Tor Vergata and Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona).

At the Open University, I led a project funded by the World Cancer Research Fund International developing new methods for the non-invasive measurements of urinary biomarkers of DNA that are related to diet and the risk of colorectal cancer.

More recently, I have become more involved in Educational Research, co-leading eSTEeM projects looking at the impact of live streaming events in undergraduate students' engagement and motivation, and aiming at gaining a better understanding of procastination in an on-line learning environment. From the passive withdrawals project, we identified that some students receive significant number of diverse communications and have started investigations whether these play a role in student engagement.

In 2019, I joined the OpenSTEM Africa team, and have been heavily involved in the developement and evaluation of on-screen Apps teaching practical Chemistry and associated examper lessons (part of a new virtual laboratory) for high school students in Ghana. We continue exploring the potential for onlyne and virtual STEM education at university level involving science educators and students in Ghana.

Teaching interests

I was involved in producion and presentation of work-based learning modules working with employers and regulators in the UK to identify needs and skill gaps:

Author on the work-based learning module S110 Health Sciences in practice
Module Team Chair (presentation) and Author on the work-based learning module S130 Analytical Sciences in practice
Module Team Chair (production and presentation) and Author on the work-based learning module S230 Developing your Analytical Sciences in practice

Over the years, I have been authoring and/or chairing a number of science modules at stage 1 and 2, contributing to several qualifications:

Topic Team Chair and Author on the module S288 Practical Science - Water Quality Monitoring
Author on the module S215 Chemistry: essential concepts (also involved in the re-write of the new S218 Concepts in Chemistry)
Author on the module S206 Environmental Science
Module Team Co-Chair (J-presentation) and Author on the module S111 Questions in Science
Module team chair (presentation) on SXM150 Contemporary Topics in Science
Author on the module S218 Concepts in Chemistry.

Additionally I was Qualification Lead for Chemistry and Interdisciplinary Sciences at the Open Univeristy (2016-2021)

Projects

Non-Invasive Biomarkers of DNA Damage Related to Red Meat Intake and Risk of Colorectal Cancer. (SC-08-241-MV)

We have recently shown that DNA damage related to consumption of red meat can be detected in colorectal cells and in blood. We now propose to extend these results to a non-invasive method for detection of urinary DNA adducts and to use this method in studies of volunteers and free-living members of the EPIC cohort to examine the relationship between DNA damage and risk of colorectal cancer. Initially it is likely that chromatographic methods such as LC-MS or GC-MS currently under development will be used in conjunction with immunoaffinity purification methodology. Urinary DNA adducts will be measured in a nested case-control study of colorectal cancer risk using subjects and stored urine samples from the EPIC cohort. The efficacy of dietary interventions designed to reduce cancer risk by reduction of DNA damage levels will be examined in volunteer studies. The use of biosensors as a high throughput approach to urinary biomarker measurement will be examined as this kind of methodology is likely to be required for large scale screening studies in populations.