Mechanisms regulating the gut-liver axis during health and disease
In 2004, I obtained my PhD at the University of Navarra. My interest at that time was to elucidate the mechanisms underlying liver regeneration and the role of IL-6 family of cytokines in this process.
After obtaining a post-doctoral grant, I moved to Germany in 2004 where my research at the Trautwein Lab focused on defining the role of the IKK complex subunits that regulate NF-kB activation in the liver response to injury; including processes such as liver regeneration, ischemia-reperfusion, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and carcinogenesis. My work also defined the role of NK cells as contributors to the development of fatty liver disease.
In 2009, I moved to the CICbioGUNE in Spain, as a Ramon y Cajal Fellow, where I continued developing my research aiming to understand the role of the innate immune system in the progression of liver disease. During that period, I also became interested in elucidating how metabolic regulators control liver function and the overall response to tissue damage. We described that SIRT1, a key metabolic regulator, tightly controls liver regeneration by modulating bile acid homeostasis.
Furthermore, during that time I developed additional work that shed light into the mechanisms underlying cholestatic liver disease as we described the implication of methyltransferases and histone deacetylases in the progression of this chronic disease.
In 2015 I joined the Institute of Food Research (now part of the Quadram Institute) where I established my research group that focuses on defining the molecular mechanisms regulating the gut-liver axis to ensure a life-long health and to prevent liver disease.