Associate Professor · Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences · University of Navarra
Alzheimer's disease (AD), the leading neurodegenerative disorder linked to aging, emerges within a paradoxical metabolic landscape. Despite rising cellular energy demands, overall energy expenditure remains stable or declines with age. The brain, acting as the central regulator, responds to hypermetabolic signals from aged tissues by activating energy-conserving mechanisms.
In this scenario, astrocytes — strategically located between blood vessels and neurons — play a pivotal role as energy sensors, adapting to systemic stress and modulating brain metabolism. Our lab explores how astrocytes undergo metabolic reprogramming in the early stages of AD, potentially becoming maladaptive over time, fuelling neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, and accelerating the disease.
By understanding astrocyte energetics, we uncover new avenues for biomarkers and therapies that could transform AD treatment.
Maite Solas Zubiaurre is Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Navarra and Principal Investigator in the field of neurodegenerative diseases and brain energetics. Her research focuses on the molecular mechanisms linking Alzheimer’s disease, metabolism and astrocyte biology, with a particular interest in insulin resistance and energy dysfunction as drivers of neurodegeneration.
She obtained her PhD at the University of Navarra, including an international research stay at the Karolinska Institute (Sweden), where she investigated the role of stress and insulin resistance in Alzheimer’s disease. She later completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research (Germany) under the supervision of Prof. Jens Brüning, expanding her expertise in insulin signaling and energy metabolism.
Since establishing her independent research line in 2014, she has led multiple national and international competitive projects, including grants funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, NARSAD and the European Research Council (ERC Consolidator Grant). Her work has contributed to high-impact publications in journals such as Science Advances, Nature Communications and Glia.
Dr. Solas has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, accumulating over 4,000 citations and an h-index of 30. She actively collaborates with national and international research groups in neuroscience and metabolism and regularly presents her work at international conferences including AAIC, FENS and SENC. In addition, she is committed to mentoring young researchers, science outreach and promoting women in neuroscience.
Alzheimer's disease (AD), the leading neurodegenerative disorder linked to aging, emerges within a paradoxical metabolic landscape. Despite rising cellular energy demands due…
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