Isabel Salas, PhD

I did my Undergraduate degree in Biochemistry in the Universidad Autonóma de Madrid (Spain, 2007-2012). During these years I was awarded with the Erasmus-mundus Fellowship which allowed me to study abroad for one year in the University of York (UK). There, I had my first research experience in the laboratory of Prof. Baumann, studying protein-protein interactions in the bacterial outer membrane. In 2012 I received my Master's degree in Molecular Biology in the Universidad Autonóma de Madrid (Spain). I did the master's research project in the laboratory of Prof. Dotti in the Center for Molecular Biology " Severo Ochoa", investigating the mechanisms responsible for memory loss with aging. In 2013 I moved to the KU Leuven (Belgium) where I started my PhD, investigating the effect of metabolic disorders on Alzheimer’s disease pathology, under the supervision of Prof. De Strooper and Prof. Dotti. During the PhD I had the opportunity to start different international collaborations including electrophysiology recordings in the Laboratory of Prof. Esteban (Spain), mouse behavioral assays in the KU Leuven Psychology department (Belgium) and in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies (KU Leuven, Belgium). In 2018 I joined the Allen lab at the Salk institute, California, USA as a Postdoctoral Fellow. My current research focuses on understanding the role of astrocytes on Alzheimer's diseases progression, particularly at the synaptic level.