Guest Editors
Violeta Durán Laforet
University of Massachusetts, Chan Medical School, Department of Neurobiology, Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute
Dr. Violeta Durán Laforet works as a postdoctoral associate at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She graduated from Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 2016 with a degree in Pharmacy. After graduating, she joined the Neurovascular Research Unit as a PhD candidate under Dr. Ignacio Lizasoain and Dr. María Ángeles Moro. During her PhD studies, her research focused on the role of neutrophils in the physiopathology of stroke, studying the heterogeneity of the neutrophil population that infiltrates the brain after stroke. Also, she explored the role of the receptor TLR4 on neutrophil polarization and infiltration after ischemia. In 2019 and 2020, she was a visiting scientist at the Neuroprotection Research Lab, Massachusetts General Hospital, at Harvard Medical School. Under the supervision of Harvard professor Dr. Eng Lo, she studied the implication of neutrophils on the pathophysiology of stroke and its relationship with the lymphatic nodules and the role of parenchymal astrocytes in neurogenesis after stroke. She received her PhD in December 2020 and joined Dr. Schafer’s lab as a Postdoctoral Associate, where she continues to investigate the role of immune cells in the context of brain disease. Currently, her research focuses on the role of senescent microglia in diverse neurodegenerative pathologies.
Carolina Peña Martinez
University of South Florida, Department of Molecular Medicine; USF Health Neuroscience Institute, Byrd Alzheimer’s Center
Caroline Peña Martínez is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of South Florida. She received her Master’s Degree in Neuroscience from the Complutense University of Madrid in 2015. As a Master’s student, she collaborated with the Neurovascular Research Unit at the School of Medicine in the Complutense University of Madrid, focusing on developing and improving the different tests to assess neurological function in rodents after brain disease. After graduating, she joined the Neurovascular Research Unit as a PhD candidate under Dr. Maria Angeles Moro and Dr. Ignacio Lizasoain. During her PhD, her research was focused on studying the role of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) in the context of stroke focused on the elucidation of the role of neutrophil and platelet TLR4 in thrombosis. Also, she explored how different thrombi components would affect the response to stroke treatment. To expand her knowledge on platelet function, in 2018, she was a visiting scientist at the ACBD, Monash University in Melbourne (Australia) under the supervision of Dr. Justin Hamilton. She received her Ph.D. in October 2020. In 2021 she joined The Heckmann´s Lab as a Postdoctoral Researcher, where she continues exploring the role of immune cells in the autophagy machinery in the context of brain disease.
Maribel Cuartero Desviat
Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), Neurovascular Pathophysiology Group
Maribel Cuartero graduated in Biology (UAM, 2007), and she obtained her PhD in Biomedicine in 2013 at Complutense University of Madrid. She is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Neurovascular Physiopathology group at CNIC. As a researcher, she has focused on investigating the mechanisms that control brain physiology in health and disease. Her scientific production includes 32 JCR and PubMed papers with over 1500 total citations and an “h-index” of 19 (Scopus).
Alicia García-Culebras
Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), Neurovascular Pathophysiology Group
Dr. Alicia García-Culebras works as a postdoctoral fellow at the Neurovascular Pathophysiology Group at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (Madrid, Spain) and is a member of the Neurovascular Research Unit at the School of Medicine at the Complutense University of Madrid. Dr. García-Culebras graduated in biology in the year 2009 at the Autónoma University of Madrid. Afterward, she carried out her PhD in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biomedicine at UCM studied different aspects within the physiopathology of stroke. Currently, her research is focus on the study of stroke and vascular cognitive impairment, specifically, the immune response after stroke and its impact on the outcome, including cognitive function.
Collection Overview
Vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) is an umbrella term that includes different pathologies associated with vascular disease. Clinically, it is defined as a deficit in at least one cognitive domain that is of sufficient severity to cause a severe disruption of activities of daily living. The etiology of VCI is very diverse. It can be observed in post-stroke dementia, subcortical ischemic vascular dementia, multi-infarct dementia, and mixed dementia (co-existing neurodegenerative pathologies such as Lewy bodies, Alzheimer´s disease, or frontotemporal dementia plus cerebrovascular disease). To qualify as post-stroke dementia, the clinical symptoms and signs must manifest within 6 months after the stroke. 1 in 10 stroke patients, develop new dementia in the first year after a first stroke episode. Most studies have focused on the effect of reduced cerebral blood flow (CBF) on cognitive function. However, the pathobiology is much more complex which makes it extremely difficult to establish a universal animal model. This fact has created a pressing need to develop reliable animal models that recapitulate the human disease, considering both the heterogeneous neuropathology and the risk factors. This Methods Collection aims to highlight the state-of-the-art animal models of VCI as well as the methods of evaluating the progression of VCI such as behavioral or imaging studies. This collection will represent a complete resource for researchers who want to immerse in the neurovascular disease field.
