Affiliation: Dubowitz Neuromuscular Centre, University College London

Dr. Elisa Villalobos earned her PhD in nutrition and food science from the University of Chile, where she studied the role of dietary manipulation in the development of cardiac fibrosis. In 2016, Dr. Villalobos conducted a research visit and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW), USA, in the lab of Dr. Joseph Hill. There, she identified primary cilia as novel regulators of fibrosis in the heart.

In 2019, she moved to the UK to work at the Center for Cardiovascular Science at the University of Edinburgh, where she studied the role of glucocorticoid transport in cardiometabolic disease. In 2022, Dr. Villalobos joined Newcastle University as a research associate, where she worked on elucidating the role of fibro/adipogenic progenitors in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Recently, she was recruited by University College London as a senior research fellow.

Dr. Villalobos’s interests include tissue remodeling and biomechanical changes in tissues, particularly in the heart, muscle, and adipose tissue, as well as the metabolic effects of these changes.