Dr. Mariana Astiz

Institut für Neurobiologie

Marie-Curie-Straße
23562 Lübeck
Gebäude CBBM, 1.OG, Raum 011

Email:
Phone:
+49 451 3101 4302
Fax:
+49 451 3101 4304

Education

Diploma in Biochemistry   Universidad Nacional del SurAR
PhD in Medical SciencesUniversidad Nacional de La Plata   AR


Academic Positions

Postdoctoral FellowNational Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), La Plata     AR
Lecturer in Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyUniversidad Nacional de La PlataAR
Postdoctoral Researcher from Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)      Cajal Institute, MadridES
Assistant ResearcherNational Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), La PlataAR
Research AssociateUnviersity of LübeckDE

Research Interest

From the very beginning of my research career I felt extremely curious about biochemical aspects of the nervous system, especially in relation to the environment. More recently, I have become particularly interested in pregnancy and how the environment, so early in life, is able to shape the offspring's brain functions in the long-term.

The circadian system regulates many aspects of mammalian physiology and behavior, and pregnancy is not an exception. However, while the impact of the environment in the adult circadian system is relatively well described, little is known about the maternal circadian adaptations to pregnancy and whether the maternal and embryonic clocks somehow communicate with one-another to coordinate the dynamic and complex process of development. Recent studies have shown that maternal circadian perturbations such as mistimed stress and sleep have negative consequences on the offspring's health.

In this context, I am using several in vitro and in vivo approaches to understand the feto-maternal communication under stressful conditions at different times of day and its long-term consequences. My final aim is to identify molecular mechanisms responsible for prenatal programming in order to prevent or even reverse the offspring's vulnerability later in life.

Our institute welcomes students from all levels to join and contribute to the progress of this exciting field of research.

Funding

2021-2022Career development grant 2020, ISNInternational Society for Neurochemistry
2018-2021Research grant (AS547/1-1), DFGDeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
2016-2018Postdoctoral research fellowship IBRO-ISN International Brain Research Organization-International Society for Neurochemistry
2015Postdoctoral short-term fellowship EMBO European Molecular Biology Organization
2015-2016Young Researcher Grant (PICT 1549-2014) AGENCIAAgencia Nacional de Promocion Cientifica y Tecnica), Argentina