Marta Jaén Castaño

Graduate in Sanitary Biology in 2015 at the University of Alcala, I started my research activities thanks to a Collaboration Scholarship from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports in the Department of Biomedicine and Biotechnology at this University. In 2017, I got a Youth Guarantee Predoctoral Contract in the Dr.Casal’s laboratory at the Biological Research Center, (CIB/CSIC) where I completed my doctoral thesis on new therapies in metastatic colorectal cancer. During my PhD studies, I acquired a solid experience in the generation of animal disease models and the identification and development of new therapeutic targets (cadherin RGD motifs and IL13Rα2) for colorectal cancer.  

After ending my PhD I wanted to explore others areas of research and I was always attracted and interested in Neuroscience. I currently work in the Department of Systems Biology at the University of Alcala in the Neurobiology of Pain group. I am implicated in the study of nociceptive circuits in the spinal cord. My work is integrated in the main research line in the laboratory that deals with the structure and function of the spinal circuits that generate depolarization of primary afferents and its implications in pathological pain. I have learnt to do the procedures to work with the spinal cord in vitro and to make electrophysiological recordings. I have worked with spinal reflexes using suction electrodes as well as recordings from multielectrodes, and been trained in their analysis. I also got experience in the use of pharmacological approaches that I have applied to understand the role of monoamines in the activity of the spinal circuits.