Welcome to a new edition of “Meet the Team”!
In this latest entry, we are delighted to introduce you to Rita Ortega Vallbona, a last-year PhD student and researcher at ProtoQSAR-Moldrug.
Rita’s academic journey began with a Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). She further pursued her passion for science by completing a course in Biotechnology Applied to Health at the National University of Distance Education (UNED) and a Master’s in Bioinformatics and Biostatistics at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). Currently, she is undertaking a PhD in Chemistry at UPV, building on her strong foundation in computational methods.
Her early research experience includes internships and her Bachelor’s thesis at the Experimental Hepatology Unit at IIS La Fe, where she worked closely with the same department she now collaborates with for her doctoral thesis.
Beyond academia, her career path has been quite diverse. Before diving fully into research, she spent five years as a flight attendant with Ryanair, starting in Luton (UK) and later serving as a cabin supervisor for four years, a role she performed both regularly and on-demand.
At ProtoQSAR-Moldrug, Rita is deeply involved in advancing computational toxicology. Her doctoral research focuses on developing computational models to predict hepatotoxicity by understanding its underlying mechanisms. As part of the ONTOX project, she collaborates with multidisciplinary teams to explore computational and in vitro strategies for predicting toxicological effects on key organs like the liver, brain, and kidneys. Her work includes developing DockTox, a computational platform for performing docking studies with proteins implicated in toxicity pathways.
She also contributes to the ASPIS consortium as a member of ONTOX and has participated in the VIDEC project, where she conducted a structural study on apoptosome proteins during a stay at the University of Gothenburg.
Her role extends beyond R&D. As a member of the company’s training department, she manages course enrollments and teaches the “How to Develop a QSAR Model with Python” course.
What does she enjoy most about her work? For Rita, the joy lies in the continuous learning and the opportunities to engage with experts across various fields through European project consortia. In her daily routine, she finds immense satisfaction in programming, automating processes, analyzing data, and creating visualizations.
Outside work, Rita is a creative soul with a love for music, singing, dancing, and drawing. She’s also deeply connected to her cultural roots, actively participating in her village’s Fallas festival and embracing Valencian traditions and attire. Her hobbies include experimenting in the kitchen with recipes from around the world and exploring new languages—besides English, she has studied Japanese, Chinese, Italian, and even Korean.
When it comes to recommendations, she suggests listening to Ghost Love Score by Nightwish, reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and, as a true fan, watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
In this entry, we’ve introduced another inspiring member of the ProtoQSAR-Moldrug team, showcasing their professional and personal journey.
