Dr Espuny-Camacho has a long-standing track record in the fields of human stem cells, human brain development and neurodegeneration, and particularly in the field of AD. Espuny-Camacho holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences by the Faculty of Medicine of KU Leuven, Belgium, 2007. Her doctoral work in the laboratory of Prof. Bart De Strooper focused on the search of amyloid-beta clearing mechanisms as therapeutic strategies against AD.

Next, she pursued a postdoctoral position under the supervision of Prof. Pierre Vanderhaeghen at the IRIBHM department of the ULB, Brussels, Belgium (2008-2012), where she specialised in Human Stem Cell Research and Brain development. Her postdoctoral work developed a pioneer model from human stem cells to study human corticogenesis in vitro and in in vivo transplantation models. In 2013 she moved to KU Leuven where she became a Staff Scientist and further consolidated her work on in vitro and in vivo Human stem cell models to study the Adult Brain in health and in AD. She had a maternity/parental leave career break (2016-17). In 2017, she moved to the University of Milan, Italy where she obtained a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship and specialised in in vitro human stem cell-derived Brain Organoid Models to study the Human brain in health and disease.

She was recruited in 2019 as Assistant Professor at ULiège. In 2020, she became Tenured Associate Professor and Head of the human iPS platform at the University at ULiège. Since then she has led a young team focused on the generation of human models to study human-specific aspects of brain neurodevelopmental and degenerative diseases. Currently her team is composed of 4 Ph.D students, 1 postdoctoral scientist and 1 visiting postdoctoral scientist.

Alzheimers disease

Classical AD mouse models fail to recapitulate important pathological features of the diseased brain, highlighting the need for human models. To that aim I have pioneered the in vitro differentiation of cortical neurons from hPSC, as well as the generation of in vivo chimeric AD models through xenotransplantation of human neurons into the mouse AD brain. This work has revealed higher susceptibility of human neurons to toxic amyloid beta species when compared to mouse counterparts. The study of early pathological events in Alzheimers disease is particularly interesting for me since it can lead to the discovery of new therapeutic targets to combat disease.

In my team we aim to generate brain organoids composed of human neurons and human glia cell subtypes to recapitulate the essence of the Alzheimers disease human brain. This novel model will be instrumental to dissect early pathological mechanisms that can lead to late stage AD hallmarks present in the brain of Alzheimers disease patients, and to highlight novel therapeutic approaches to combat the disease.

CURRENT ALUMNI

Mathilde Colinet (Ph.D student)

Gerald Masset (Ph.D student)

Fatemeh Ghanavatinejad (Ph.D student)

Alessia Cambier (Ph.D student)

Sergio Helgueta Romero (Postdoctoral Scientist)

Ricardo Gomez Oliva (Postdoctoral Scientist)

Domaine de recherche

Sciences biomédicales en général

Distinctions scientifiques

Marie Curie Individual Intra-European Fellowship MSCA-IF-2017 (2017)
Chargé de Recherches Research Associate F.R.S.-F.N.R.S.-Collaborateur Scientifique (2008)
Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences by the KU Leuven, Belgium (2007)

ESPUNY CAMACHO Ira Mercedes

Bibliographie

Biographie

Domaine de recherche

Distinctions scientifiques

Contenus liés