Ruth Barral-Arca

Bioinformatician

“Disease and adaptation are two sides of the same coin”

Ruth Barral Arca is a Biology graduate of the University of Santiago de Compostela (2014). During her bachelor’s degree, she was granted a scholarship called “Sergas pre-professional practices” that allowed her to join a training period at the laboratory of clinical analysis of A Coruña University Hospital.

In 2015 she studied a master’s degree in biomedical research at the University of Santiago de Compostela, she graduated top of her class being awarded the Outstanding Graduate of the Year award. During her master’s degree, she participated in a project about mitochondrial DNA variability within the Iberian Peninsula, at the Luis Concheiro Institute of forensic sciences, under the supervision of Pr. Antonio Salas.

In July 2016 she obtained the predoctoral fellowship “Axudas de apoio á etapa predoutoral nas universidades do SUG”. Her research focuses on pediatric infectious diseases, focusing on unravelling how the host transcriptome is affected by infectious diseases and vaccines using machine learning algorithms and statistical modelling. She is particularly interested in transcriptomics and its integration with epigenomic data.

She has collaborated in the development of an R package for the detection of differentially methylated regions through a Kernel regression sliding-window approach (METKMR), that also allows the integration of transcriptomic and epigenomic data. As a result of her research in 2019, she obtained a European Patent for the discovery of two host LncRNAs biomarkers of viral infections. The results of her research have been published in peer-reviewed international journals such as RNA, Scientific Reports, Plos One, Genes etc.

Also, in 2019, she obtained an MSc in Omic data analysis from the University of Vic. The program covered genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, metagenomics, interactomics and integromics and provided knowledge of the most important techniques for omic data acquisition and analysis.

Currently, she is a PhD candidate who will have her thesis dissertation in 2020.

She has developed skills in Statistics, machine learning: supervised and unsupervised methods, programming (R, Python), linux bash scripting, genomics data analysis (DNA Array-Based Gene Profiling and NGS): analysis of Complex Diseases Association Studies, GWAS, transcriptomics data analysis: RNA-seq, microarray , epigenomics data analysis: microarray and Bisulfite sequencing, metagenomics data analysis and multi-omic data analysis.

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Ruth Barral

Publications within the group

  • 2022
    • Cebey-López, Miriam, Currás-Tuala, María José, Gómez-Rial, Jose, Rivero-Calle, Irene, Pardo-Seco, Jacobo, Mendez-Gallart, Roberto, Sara Pischedda, Gómez-Carballa, Alberto, Barral-Arca, Ruth, Justicia Grande, Antonio José, Viz Lasheras, Sandra, Rodríguez-Tenreiro, Carmen, Gómez, Rodolfo, Salas, Antonio and Martinón-Torres, Federico. (2022). Everolimus reduced bone turnover markers but showed no clinical benefit in a patient with severe progressive osseous heteroplasia. Frontiers in Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2022.936780
    • Alberto Gómez-Carballa, Irene Rivero-Calle, Jacobo Pardo-Seco, José Gómez-Rial, Carmen Rivero-Velasco, Nuria Rodríguez-Núñez, Gema Barbeito-Castiñeiras, Hugo Pérez-Freixo, Miriam Cebey-López, Ruth Barral-Arca, Carmen Rodriguez-Tenreiro, Ana Dacosta-Urbieta, Xabier Bello, Sara Pischedda, María José Currás-Tuala, Sandra Viz-Lasheras, Federico Martinón-Torres and Antonio Salas (2022). A multi-tissue study of immune gene expression profiling highlights the key role of the nasal epithelium in COVID-19 severity. Environmental Research; 210(1):112890. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.112890
    • Sara Pischedda, Irene Rivero-Calle, Alberto Gómez-Carballa, Miriam Cebey-López, Ruth Barral-Arca, Jose Gómez Rial, Jacobo Pardo-Seco, María José Currás Tuala, Sandra Viz Lasheras, Xabier Bello, Ana B. Crujeiras, Angel Diaz-Lagares, Teresa María, Federico Martinon-Torres and Antonio Salas (2022). Role and diagnostic performance of host epigenome in respiratory morbidity after RSV infection: the EPIRESVi study. Frontiers in Immunology; 13:875691. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.875691
  • 2021
    • Gómez-Carballa, Alberto, Barral-Arca, Ruth, Cebey-López, Miriam, Bello, Xabier, Pardo-Seco, Jacobo, Martinón-Torres, Federico and Salas, Antonio (2021). Identification of a Minimal 3-Transcript Signature to Differentiate Viral from Bacterial Infection from Best Genome-Wide Host RNA Biomarkers: A Multi-Cohort Analysis. International Journal of Molecular Sciences; 22(6):3148. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22063148
    • Alberto Gómez-Carballa, Ruth Barral-Arca, Miriam Cebey-López, Maria José Currás-Tuala, Sara Pischedda, José Gómez-Rial, Dominic Habgood-Coote, Jethro A Herberg, Myrsini Kaforou, Federico Martinón-Torres, Antonio Salas (2021). Host Transcriptomic Response Following Administration of Rotavirus Vaccine in Infants' Mimics Wild Type Infection.. Frontiers in Inmunology; 11(1):3517. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2020.580219
  • 2020
    • Barral-Arca R, Gómez-Carballa A, Cebey-López M, Currás-Tuala MJ, Pischedda S, Viz-Lasheras S, Bello S, Martinón-Torres F, Salas A (2020). RNA-Seq data-mining allows the discovery of two long non-coding RNA biomarkers of viral infection in humans. International Journal of Molecular Sciences; 21(8):2748. http://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21082748
    • Barral-Arca R, Gómez-Carballa A, Cebey-López M, Bello X, Martinón-Torres F, Salas A (2020). A Meta-Analysis of Multiple Whole Blood Gene Expression Data Unveils a Diagnostic Host-Response Transcript Signature for Respiratory Syncytial Virus. International Journal of Molecular Sciences; 21(5):1831. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21051831
  • 2019
    • Gómez-Carballa A, Cebey-López M, Pardo-Seco J, Barral-Arca R, Rivero-Calle I, Pischedda S, Gómez-Rial J, Barros F, Martinón-Torres F, Salas A (2019). A qPCR expression assay of IFI44L gene differentiates viral from bacterial infections in febrile children. Scientific reports; 9:11780. http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48162-9
    • Salas A, Pardo-Seco J, Cebey-López M, Gómez-Rial J, Pischedda S, Barral-Arca R, Justicia-Grande A, Rivero-Calle I, Vilar J, Martinón-Torres F (2019). Impact of rotavirus vaccination on childhood hospitalizations for seizures: Heterologous or unforeseen direct vaccine effects?. Vaccine; 37:3362-3368. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.04.086
    • Barral-Arca R, Pardo-Seco J, Bello X, Martinón-Torres F, Salas A (2019). Ancestry patterns inferred from massive RNA-seq data. RNA; 25:857-868. http://doi.org/10.1261/rna.070052.118
  • 2018
    • Barral-Arca R, Pardo-Seco J, Martinón-Torres F, Salas A (2018). A 2-transcript host cell signature distinguishes viral from bacterial diarrhea and it is influenced by the severity of symptoms. Scientific reports; 8:8043. http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26239-1
    • Salas A, Pardo-Seco J, Barral-Arca R, Cebey-López M, Gómez-Carballa A, Rivero-Calle I, Pischedda S, Currás-Tuala M, Amigo J, Gómez-Rial J, Martinón-Torres F, GENDRES Network (2018). Whole Exome Sequencing identifies new host genomic susceptibility factors in empyema caused by streptococcus pneumoniae in children: A pilot study. Genes; 9:240. http://doi.org/10.3390/genes9050240
  • 2017
    • Pischedda S, Barral-Arca R, Gómez-Carballa A, Pardo-Seco J, Álvarez-Iglesias V, Martinón-Torres F, Vullo C, Salas A (2017). Phylogeographic and genome-wide investigations of Vietnam ethnic groups reveal signatures of complex historical demographic movements. Scientific reports; 7:12630. http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12813-6
  • 2016
    • Barral-Arca R, Pischedda S, Gómez-Carballa A, Pastoriza A, Mosquera-Miguel A, López-Soto M, Martinón-Torres F, Álvarez-Iglesias V, Salas A (2016). Meta-Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA Variation in the Iberian Peninsula. PloS one; 11:e0159735. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159735