Biography

Since 2000, one of the basic objectives of my research team has been the study of the cellular and molecular mechanism involved in brain neurodegeneration.Two main questions have guided our research effort during these years: 1.- Which molecular mechanisms are involved in the control of neuronal apoptosis? ; 2.- Why synaptic activity is altered in AD?.
During the last years, I’ve been mainly interested in the mechanisms that are associated to the early cognitive dysfunction observed in AD. We want to know through which mechanisms synaptic activity is altered in AD well before neurodegeneration happens. We have focused in the effects on glutamate receptors since glutamatergic synapses are the most abundant excitatory synapses in the CNS and also because they are closely associated to plasticity events related to learning and memory.