19/09/23
We are delighted to announce that Dr Ana Dorrego-Rivas, a postdoctoral researcher from Matthew Grubb Group at the Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, has been awarded the Wellcome Early-Career Award.
Ana completed her undergraduate and Master’s in Barcelona, Spain and subsequently received her PhD in Bordeaux, France. In 2022, she was the recipient of the IoPPN Early Career Award. Ana is studying neurotransmitter release strategies in dopaminergic neurons of the mouse olfactory bulb.
The 5-year fellowship supports Ana’s project, “Activity-dependent co-ordination of axonal and dendritic maturation”. The project will examine the interplay between axons and dendrites, two parts of a neuron essential for neuronal functions. The maturation processes of axons and dendrites are individually well understood; however, their potential to influence each other is still understudied.
In olfactory bulbs, an important step of dendritic maturation called “dendritic pruning” occurs at the same time as the same maturation occurs in a specialised region of the axon named the “axon initial segment”. This unique co-occurrence allows Ana to study how these processes influence each other to shape functional neuronal cells.
‘I am grateful to the Wellcome Trust for this Early-Career Award, which will allow me to answer the fundamental questions of if and how axons and dendrites communicate with each other during neuronal development.’
Dr Ana Dorrego-Rivas>
