As a researcher, I am a neuroscientist with a Research Master’s degree in Cognitive Neuroscience: Development and Lifelong Plasticity from Radboud University – Donders Institute (Netherlands). My passion for Gut–Brain Axis research began during my Erasmus+ exchange program at KU Leuven (Belgium), where I took courses from both the Bachelor’s in Psychology and the Master’s in Psychology: Theory and Research while completing my Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology at the University of the Basque Country (Spain).
During my Master’s, I specialised in Gut–Microbiome–Brain Axis through a one-year internship at the Donders Institute’s (and Radboud University Medical Center) Food and Cognition and Memory and Emotion research groups. Our work explored associations between gut bacterial profiles and neural, emotional, and cognitive characteristics. Thereafter, I completed an internship at the Microbiota Analysis Group in the Psychiatry Department of the Radboud University Medical Center (Netherlands), where we aimed at identifying shared microbiome patterns across different psychiatric disorders.
As a human rights activist, I emphasise the importance of studying gender differences in neuroscience, specifically the Gut–Brain Axis, to promote more personalised clinical applications. I have also worked to increase the visibility of women researchers in science. Additionally, I participated in a youth cooperation programme in Colombia sponsored by the Basque Government, where I investigated the emotional well-being of victims of armed conflict, most of whom were women. Currently, I am conducting the project “Ultra-Processed Foods and the Microbiota–Brain Axis in Early Development: Insights from Human Birth Cohorts and Preclinical Models” within the TOUCH network and the Department of Psychiatry and Legal Medicine at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. This research investigates the associations between the increasingly widespread consumption of ultra-processed foods and their potential repercussions on fetal and child neural development, with particular attention to gender differences. Through this work, I aim to contribute to scientific progress and to the well-being of society.