Affiliation: University of Bordeaux, Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience, French National Centre for Scientific Research

Dr. Mar Petit-Pedrol is a postdoctoral researcher at the Interdisciplinary Institute for Neurosciences in Bordeaux, France. In 2018, she obtained her PhD in Biomedicine from the University of Barcelona Spain, where she studied the pathogenic effect of the autoantibodies in autoimmune encephalitis (AE). During this period, she was able to identify unknown target antigens of patients with AE, such as GABAaR or neurexin, characterize the patients’ antibodies and prove their pathogenic effect in vitro and in rodent models of the disease. In 2020 she moved to Bordeaux, France, to continue her studies in AE by applying single molecule approaches together with photonics to decipher the molecular mechanisms leading to patients’ symptoms in autoimmune encephalitis. Her work has provided a better understanding of these autoimmune disorders.