Cristina Sánchez is a Spanish Medical Researcher and Molecular biologist. [1]
Education
Cristina started her scientific career as an undergraduate student at the laboratory of Dr. Ramos and Dr. Fernández-Ruiz. She graduated in Biology at Complutense University of Madrid in 1994. [2]
She studied the effect of cannabinoids on Lipids and Carbohydrate intermediate metabolism first and on Cancer cell proliferation. [2]
She obtained her PhD with Honors in Biochemistry and Molecular biology at Complutense University of Madrid in 2000. During her postdoc at Dr. Piomelli’s laboratory (University of California Irvine, 2000-2003) she studied the involvement of another group of bioactive lipids (lysophosphatidic acid and related compounds) on pain initiation.[2]
Cannabinoid Research
Cristina Sanchez is the leading researcher on Cannabis in Oncology. She has published a multitude of pre-clinical studies in Peer reviewed journals identifying applications of cannabis based extracts in different diagnoses.[2]
Cristina Sanchez' research indicates that Decarboxylated THCA and CBD are important components in tumor reduction.[2] CB2 receptors are not present in the brain, allowing for non-psychoactive medication to be created. CB1 receptors are present throughout the body, making this substance more suitable for treatment of Breast cancer.
One of her focuses has been on creating clinical strength medications with consistent ratios of cannabinoids. The importance of this is creating reliable medications that have balanced and specific ratios of cannabinoids to treat different cancers. For instance, Glioma and Skin cancer are believed to require different ratios of cannabinoids, in part because glioma cells are behind the Lipid Blood-brain Barrier.[12]