Mariel holds a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Physics from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). During several internships, she gained experience on microfabrication technologies, microfluidics, hydrogel patterning  and electrical impedance biosensing. She next pursued a Master’s degree in Nanobiotechnology at Université Grenoble Alpes, France. She completed her master’s thesis at the Cytomorpho Lab, where she used protein micropatterns and microfluidic devices to study the dynamics of actin assembly and the role of the actin cytoskeleton in cell chirality.  In 2021, she joined the Applied Stem Cell Technologies group as a PhD candidate, where she is curently developing a miniature pumping heart chamber and a cardiac pacemaker organ-on-chip model. Mariel aims to explore emerging technologies for tissue engineering, disease modelling and regenerative medicine applications.