Lucía Schmidt-Santiago

Lucía Schmidt-Santiago

PhD Student @ UC3M

Lucía Schmidt-Santiago

Who I am

Hello, I’m Lucía!

I am a PhD student and pre-doctoral researcher at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) in the ML4DS group. I work closely with my supervisor, Dra. Vanessa Gómez Verdejo, exploring the exciting field of biomedical science, engineering, and machine learning.

My PhD explores the potential of generative AI to advance microbiology and clinical diagnostics. I apply deep learning (DL) models to MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry data, an essential tool for bacterial characterization. My research revolves around key questions:

  • Can we fully characterize bacteria using only spectrometry data?
  • How far can we push predictive modeling for bacterial identification and antimicrobial resistance?
  • Is it possible to generate realistic synthetic data to enhance microbiology datasets?

Every day, I work to uncover new insights, develop novel models, and push the boundaries of what’s possible in computational microbiology.

Beyond my work with microbiology data, I have a strong passion for signal and image analysis. I have contributed to projects involving DECT images for improving proton therapy dose calculation algorithms, as well as histopathology research, where I developed semantic segmentation models to analyze tumor microenvironments in breast cancer images.

Through this website, I aim to share my research, insights, and experiences with the scientific community. If you’re interested in collaborations, discussions, or just exploring ideas, feel free to reach out! 🚀

Research

My main interests are:

  • Bioengineering
  • Machine Learning
  • Generative Artificial Intelligence
  • Signal Processing

Last news

  • March 2025: Presenting at the T3chFest about how AI can help in diagnostic microbiology.
  • February 2025: Our newest review paper “Applied Machine Learning for human bacteria MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry: a systematic review” has been sent for review. Check the new version of the preprint here. Fingers crossed!
  • February 2025 Our paper “Overcoming Challenges of Reproducibility and Variability for the Clostridioides difficile typification” has been sent for review. Check the new version of the preprint here. Fingers crossed!

Short Bio