Scientific contributions:

I am a neuroscientist studying the mechanisms that cause neuronal hyperexcitability, a common feature of many neurological diseases. My expertise includes electrophysiology (EMG, EEG, patch-clamp), molecular biology (PCR, Western blot), confocal microscopy, behavior, pharmacology, gene therapy and the European patent submission process.

In my master thesis I found that, although the neuron-microglia interactions are important for regeneration, the intrinsic neuronal mechanisms themselves are decisive (Sanchez-Brualla et al., 2018).
During my PhD, I studied the role of potassium-chloride cotransporter type 2 (KCC2) on spasticity and neuropathic pain. My thesis was an international joint supervision between Drs. Laurent Vinay and Frédéric Brocard, from Aix-Marseille Université (AMU, France) and Dr. Esther Udina, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB, Spain). I obtained a competitive grant (A*MIDEX; Académie d’Excellence-Collège Doctoral, 2014) that funded the first three years of my PhD training. Later, I obtained another competitive grant to fund the fourth year of my thesis (4eme année de these, Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale, 2017). These grants I obtained allowed this international collaboration, yielding two joint papers (Sanchez-Brualla et al., 2018; Modol-Caballero et al., 2020), and one research grant (AFM-Telethon 20289).
KCC2 is a neuronal transmembrane protein that is downregulated after an injury, causing a return to a less developed state, characterized by a hyperexcitability, leading to neuropathic pain and spasticity. I found that neuropathic pain from central or peripheral injuries is differentially sensitive to KCC2 increase induced by TCB-2 (Sanchez-Brualla et al., 2018). I also found that KCC2 is cleaved by calpain after a spinal cord injury and this is synergistic with an increase in sodium channel activity to produce spasticity (Plantier, Sanchez-Brualla et al., 2019). I was first author on these two publications, and the manager of the projects. During my PhD, I also contributed to a paper on gene therapy to increase neuregulin 1 type III in SOD1 mice to reduce ALS symptoms (Modol-Caballero et al., 2020), to another identifying prochlorperazine as a drug with the capacity to increase KCC2 (Liabeuf et al., 2017), and I contributed data to deposit a patent (EP3116495B1; WO2015135947A1).
During my postdoc, I proved that phenobarbital –GABA receptor agonist and anti-seizure medication- does not worsen the effects of hypoxia-induced epileptic seizures on hippocampal LTP. In some cases, it reverses these effects (Sanchez-Brualla et al., 2023). I also contributed to a study showing the clearance of senescent microglia reduces epileptic seizures (Khan et al., 2024). Later, I studied the role of a sodium channel mutation in SUDEP.

Contributions to society:

My research has improved our knowledge on nervous system diseases related to neuronal hyperexcitability. My PhD work identified three drugs (prochlorperazine, TCB-2 and tetracyclines) as potentially useful to increase KCC2 function, reducing spasticity and neuropathic pain in human patients. One of these drugs, prochlorperazine, was patented (EP3116495B1; WO2015135947A1) to treat spasticity. The main discovery of my postdoc responds to the need to improve our knowledge about phenobarbital: on its Guidelines on neonatal seizures, the World Health Organization strongly recommends phenobarbital to treat neonatal seizures, but recognizes that the quality of the evidence supporting its use is very low. I have contributed to the dissemination of scientific discoveries by doing outreach, such as the European Researchers’ Night (2016, 2017), the Brain Awareness Week (2015, 2016, 2017), the blog En clave biomédica, the official blog of the Society for Neuroscience congress 2017 -I was one of the eight official bloggers selected-, the magazine Georgetown Health, the NGO CURE Epilepsy and the blog Maldita.es.

Contributions to training and mentoring:

I am a theory and laboratory practice professor in Histology (1st year) and Microscopic Structure of Organs and Systems (2nd year) on the degree in Medicine at UAB. I am currently the laboratory practice coordinator for Histology. I have also taught a medical simulation subject (AIMS II) for the 2nd year students of the degree in Medicine.

I have trained four young researchers in the laboratory: one internship student, one undergraduate thesis and two master theses. All of them graduated from their programs, the master students were accepted at Medical School. I am supervising one undergraduate thesis and co-supervising one master thesis -both will graduate in 2026-. I have mentored three undergraduate students applying to PhD programs through the organization Científico Latino (2021, 2022, 2023): all three got accepted.

As a leader of the Postdoc Association of Georgetown University (GU, USA) and the University of Virginia (UVA, USA), I organized training programs in scientific and professional skills for the postdocs of these universities.