Sonja Buvinic

Biography

Dr. Sonja Buvinic is a Biochemist from the Universidad de Chile (2001) and holds a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences (with a focus on Cellular and Molecular Biology) from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (2007). She is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Dentistry at the Universidad de Chile, where she leads the Muscle-Bone Crosstalk Laboratory.

She completed her postdoctoral research in Cellular Physiology of Muscle (Universidad de Chile ), and she has also undertaken internships at Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NC, USA, 2003) and Indiana University School of Medicine (IN, USA, 2019).

Throughout her career, her central research focus has been on the role of extracellular nucleotides as signaling molecules in pathophysiology. She was the first to describe the role of extracellular ATP (eATP) as a relevant mediator between the depolarization of skeletal muscle cells and intracellular calcium signals that regulate gene expression. These findings opened up a new research area, positioning ATP as a central regulator of muscular plasticity in health and disease. Since then, it has proposed the role of eATP signaling in exercise, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and sarcopenia.

At the Faculty of Dentistry of the Universidad de Chile, she founded the "Muscle-Bone Cross-Communication Laboratory," focusing on the communication between muscles and bones through soluble molecules. Here, she combined her expertise in muscle pathophysiology and cellular communication with the field of bone cell biology, a niche that has been underexplored in Chile. Her interest has focused on studying the masticatory system, a cellular and molecularly understudied area that differs significantly from the musculoskeletal system of the trunk and limbs. Her laboratory has generated animal models of masticatory system remodeling that mimic both physiological and pathological situations. Collaborating with professionals from multidisciplinary areas and clinical experts has enabled her to address questions comprehensively.

Dr. Buvinic has led and participated in national and international research projects, both individual and collaborative. She has supervised numerous undergraduate and postgraduate theses. Her laboratory has produced multiple publications in indexed journals and is a leader in the field both nationally and internationally.

In administrative roles, she has served as the Deputy Director of the Institute for Research in Dental Sciences at the Universidad de Chile and has been a Member of the Review Panel for Projects at ANID (National Agency for Research and Development, Chile). She is also the vice president of the Chilean Society of Physiological Sciences (2021-2023), becoming the president in March 2024.