Author archives: Rosa García-Verdugo

Image of Rosa García-Verdugo

Rosa studied Biochemistry at University of Oviedo and, after working for a while in immunology at the Center for Biological Research (CIB) and another brief period of systems biology at the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG), she eventually got her PhD in systems neurobiology at the Max-Planck-Institute of Neurobiology in Munich. Her research deals with neuronal plasticity in mouse visual cortex and big 2-photon microscopes.

Stopping jumping genes could increase lifespan, at least in worms

Stopping jumping genes could increase lifespan, at least in worms

Genetics

By Rosa García-Verdugo

Roundworms are the most commonly used animal model to investigate aging and methods to increase the lifespan such as intermittent fasting. Latest research indicates that jumping genes could be another target for interventions aiming towards expanding the lifespan. What are jumping genes? Also called transposons, are movable stretches of DNA of possible viral origin that […]

Drug combinations to combat antibiotic resistance

Drug combinations to combat antibiotic resistance

BiologyBiomedicineMedicinePharmacy

By Rosa García-Verdugo

One of the biggest health threats in our current society is not related to a virus, not even to diabetes or cardiovascular disease, but to antimicrobial resistance. In fact, over 5 million deaths per year are associated with resistant bacteria, of which nearly 1.3 million deaths per year are directly attributable to antimicrobial resistance. This […]

A new imaging technique allows visualisation inside intact animals

A new imaging technique allows visualisation inside intact animals

BiomedicineMolecular biology

By Rosa García-Verdugo

One of the biggest challenges of medical imaging technologies is actually resolving the structures of interest, be it a tumour, a lung or a blood vessel, without the “noise” from other bodily parts like skin or muscle. A new imaging technique allows for visualisation inside intact animals at higher resolution than ever before. A team […]

Obesity hinders brain recognition of nutrient signals

Obesity hinders brain recognition of nutrient signals

BiochemistryBiomedicineHealthMedicineNeuroscience

By Rosa García-Verdugo

Recent research has demonstrated that obesity impairs the mechanisms that allow our brains to realize when our stomachs are full and that these changes are maintained despite dieting, giving insights into why it is difficult for obese people to avoid excessive eating and why there is often a yo-yo effect after dieting. It has been […]

Losing the Y chromosome

Losing the Y chromosome

Science

By Rosa García-Verdugo

In humans, biological sex is determined by the chromosomes X or Y. People having a Y chromosome are typically male, as this small chromosome –which evolution seems to be doing away with– contains a gene which determines the formation of male sexual organs in the embryo. However, despite its small size, the Y chromosome is […]

A lifetime of mental illness accelerates ageing

A lifetime of mental illness accelerates ageing

NeurobiologyNeuroscience

By Rosa García-Verdugo

Mental illness is associated with accelerated ageing, namely with shorter life span and ageing-related diseases such as diabetes or cardiovascular problems, with worse effects observed in men than women (the average lifespan for men having suffered from mental illness is 10 years shorter than for peers without those issues, for women the difference is seven […]

Organoid intelligence: brains acting as computers

Organoid intelligence: brains acting as computers

Computer scienceNeuroscience

By Rosa García-Verdugo

While for long in neuroscience, computers were used to model brain function, organoid intelligence, a new scientific field, aims to do the opposite by developing biological computers which would benefit from the efficiency of our most complex biological machine: the brain. Fear not. The objective is not to connect humans by their brains to power […]