Former Lab Members

Maria Isabel was a PhD student in the lab until 2010. She is currently working in a Biotechnology Company in Elche, Alicante (Spain)

Maria Isabel Carreres

Susana got her PhD at the University of Santiago de Compostela in 2010 under the supervision of Prof. I. Rodríguez-Moldes and Dr. E. Candal working on morphogenesis and regionalization of the Central Nervous System of elasmobranch fish (Scyliorhinus canicula, recently considered as an emerging model organism). She performed several stages in the laboratory of Dr. S. Mazan at the CNRS in Orléans, France, where worked on early development in elasmobranch fish, contributing to analyze extra-embryonary tissue formation in vertebrates following an evo-devo perspective. She was postdoctoral researcher in Eloísa Herrera’s lab until 2014 where she was studying the involvement of the transcription factor Zic2 in vertebrate visual system development

Susana Ferreiro-Galve

Violeta holds a PhD degree in Biochemistry, obtained at University College Cork in 2006, under the supervision of Professor Thomas G. Cotter. During her stay at UCC, she focused her research on the characterization of photoreceptor mechanisms of apoptosis in retinal degenerations. As a post-doctoral fellow she deepened in the study of animal models of inherited retinal disease, as well as in the development of pharmacological therapies with neurotrophic factors, at Dr. Enrique de la Rosa (CIB-CISC; 2007-10) and Prof. Nicolás Cuenca’s (University of Alicante; 2010-2013) laboratories. Nowadays, she works as Assistant Professor in the Department of Optics, Pharmacology and Anatomy at the University of Alicante.

Violeta Gómez Vicente

Gerald Muça

Gerald got his degree on Veterinary Medicine at the Agricultural University of Tirana in Albania in 2008. Then he moved to Spain where in 2011 he carried out an interuniversity Master degree on Animal Genetic Improvement and Biotechnology of Reproduction by Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona and Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. In February 2012 he moved to Alicante to join Eloisa Herrera’s Lab where he carried out his PhD work until 2016. He's currently working at the University of Tirana (Albania).

Blanca got her degree in Biology at the Universidad de Granada in 2006. She started her career working in the molecular mechanisms that control the survival of Plasmodium falciparum at the Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicine in Granada but then she decided to move into Neurobiology in 2008 to join the laboratory of Eloísa Herrera. During her PhD work Blanca has discovered that the transcription factor Zic2 is required to maintain the axonal ipsilaterality of thalamocortical axons in mammals. At the present she is working on the role of Zic2 in cell migration during brain development. She defended her PhD Thesis on Novembre 2016 and now she has a posdoctoral postition in Dr. Sousa's group in the Oporto University, Portugal.

Géraud Chauvin

Géraud did his master degree in neuroscience at the Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg (France) in 2006, then went to the University of Sydney (Australia) under the supervision of Dr. Dario Proti and Pr. Bogdan Dreher, to learn electrophysiological recording in cat, then started his PhD degree in 2009 at Dr. Eloisa Herrera's lab in the Instituto de Neurociencias de (Spain) where he has worked on the molecular mechanisms implicated in retinal development. He's currently working in a biotechnology company in Barcelona (Spain).

Celia graduated in Biology by the Universidad de Alicante in 2004. She also got her qualification as a technician in Alicante. Since 2005 from 2018 Celia maintained our mice colonies and she provides technical assistance to the rest of the lab members

Santiago graduated in Biotechnology in 2011 at the Francisco de Vitoria University (Madrid). He then joined Helena Mira’s lab at the Instituto de Salud Carlos III where he got a MsC degree from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Biomedicine. There he worked on astroglia transdifferentiation and collaborated in projects related to neural stem cells. After that, Santiago was a PhD student in Eloisa Herrera’s group at the Instituto de Neurociencias trying to shed some light on the role of neural activity in axon guidance and refinement until 2019.

Aida got a degree in Biotechnology in 2012 at the Universitat de Lleida. Then she joined Beatriz Rico’s lab at the Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante and got an MSc degree in Neuroscience from the Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche. There she worked with a project related to synapse formation in the striatum in a mouse model of schizophrenia. Since September 2014 she was a PhD student in Eloisa Herrera’s lab where she was trying to elucidate the molecular pathways driven by Zic2 related to axon guidance and also during early mouse development. She's currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Sánchez-Mut at the Institute of Neurosciences.

Aida Giner de Gracia

Iván Guzmán Robledo

Iván graduated in Biology by the Universidad de Alicante in 2014. Then he joined Mercedes Palmero’s lab and got an MSc degree in Biomedicine from the Universidad de Alicante. In 2018, Iván started his doctoral studies in the group of Eloisa Herrera at the Institute of Neurosciences where he reimained until mid 2020.

Diana graduated as Technician in Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory in Alicante. From 2010 to 2014 she worked as Lab Manager in the laboratory of Dr. Beatriz Rico at the Institute of Neurosciences of Alicante. In July 2015 she joined Eloisa Herrera's lab as a laboratory technician. She's currently working as technician in Dr. Pérez-Otaño's lab at the Institute of Neurosciences

Santiago Negueruela snegueruela@umh.es

Rocío studied Biology at the Universitat de València in 2013. Then, she joined Juan Nàcher's lab at Universitat de València where she did a Master degree in Basic and Applied Neurosciences. There, she worked on structural plasticity of inhibitory networks in the adult brain and how this structural plasticity is involved in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, stress and major depression. She carried out her PhD in Eloisa Herrera's group at the Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante focused on the study of epigenetic mechanisms underlying retinal axon guidance. She's currently working as a reseracher in ISABIAL, Alicante.

Eloisa Herrera Laboratory