Bio- Dr Jimenez-Mateos

Dr Jimenez graduated in Biochemistry at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 2000. During she PhD training at the Centro of Biologia Molecular Severo Ochoa (CBM-Severo Ochoa), she studied the molecular mechanisms involved in early neuro-developmental stage. In particular, she studied “errors” on neuronal differentiation and migration which lead to lysencephalies using genetic modified animal models. Her PhD studies culminated in 2005 with 6 publications in high impact international journals, including Current Biology (2004) and Cerebral Cortex (2005). After a short post-doctoral period in Hospital Ramon y Cajal where she studied the role of cortical dysplasia in paediatrics epilepsies, she moved to RCSI, Dublin, Ireland. Here she focused on understanding the biological basis of epileptogeneis and epilepsy. She described for the first time the dysregulation of miR-134 in an experimental mouse model of epilepsy and in surgical resected samples of epileptic patients. Also, she demonstrated the anti-convulsant effect of targeting miR-134 in an experimental model of epilepsy (Nature Medicine, 2012). In 2014, she obtained the prestigious SIRG Award and stablished my own research line at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). Currently, she is focused in the understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying encephalopathies in new born babies, in particular how inflammation  in infants re-wired the brain and results in neuropsychiatric disorders, such us, autism, schizophrenia, epilepsy and learning disabilities. She recently showed, for  the first time, a feed forward loop involving a Transctiption Factor-microRNA-Target gene (SP1-miR-22-P2X7) and how the interactions between these three elements decide between neuronal death and survival  after Status Epilepticus (Sci Rep, 2015; Biochim Biophys Acta, 2017). Finally, I has received several awards, including  FENS-IBRO Award (2012), Best paper of the Year in Ireland (2012), Best Young Neuroscientific in Ireland (2014) and more recently the FENS-Kavli Award (2018).

 

PhD Student:

Sean Quinlan