I am a Chilean Biochemist (University of Chile) and PhD in Biomedical Sciences (Universidad Catolica-Universidad de Los Andes, Chile). Supervisors: Dr. Jose Luis Santos and Dr. Victor Cortes.

During my PhD thesis (2013-2016), I aimed to understand how serotonin (5HT) signaling regulates mitochondrial function and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in a mouse β-cell line (MIN6). I also evaluated whether changes in expression pattern of serotoninergic family genes (encoding for metabolic enzymes and 5HT receptor subtypes) contributed to β-cell dysfunction driven by glucolipotoxicity either in vitro (treated with high glucose-free fatty acids) or in vivo (pancreatic islets from db/db mice) (couple of papers were published as first author).  

Afterwards, I moved to Sweden (Lund University) to develop my first Post Doc (Fellowship at Isabella Artner's group-LUDC). The aim was to investigates the role of autonomic nervous system, specially, neurotransmitter (acetylcholine/nicotine) signaling regulates β-cell function and whether these processes are regulated by MafA transcription factor.

During my first year (2017) as Postdoc at Artner´s group with the help of my supervisor, I succeeded to get a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships, Horizon 2020, what help me to extend my Postdoc work.

Combining pharmacological and genetic approaches, I studied how altered nicotinic signaling leads to β-cell dysfunction in the diabetic development. For this project, I performed experiments of nicotine treatment of MIN6 cells, mouse islets and human islets and in vivo nicotine treatments of mice in normal and metabolically stress conditions (diet-induced obesity) and tested beta cell function and glucose homeostasis.

In parallel, in my first postdoc I developed my own project to study the role of PPP1R1A, a MafA-target gene, in the regulation of the GLP1R-mediated amplification of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in β-cells (Published in Metabolism, 2021). Additionally, we keep working in collaborative projects with Prof. Isabella Artner and Lena Eliasson to evaluate exocytosis related genes regulated by MAFA and MAFB in human beta cells (Published in Acta Physiologica, 2022).

In 2021, I started my current position as Senior Postdoc, which is a joint project between the Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR) at University of Copenhagen and the Molecular Metabolism Unit (LUDC) at Lund University. I aiming to set up and take advantage of metabolomics tools to study comprehensively beta cell metabolism with special focus in mitochondrial metabolism and Type 2 Diabetes.