About Isabel Varela Nieto

Science is Culture

Dr. Isabel Varela Nieto graduated (1981) and doctorate (1985) in Chemistry, Biochemistry Section, at the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain). EMBO fellow, enjoyed two EMBO postdoctoral fellowships at the Universities of Glasgow (UK) and Leuven (Belgium) (1986-1989). She has been visiting guest scientist at the Medical Schools of Uppsala (FEBS Fellow, 1993, Sweden) and San Diego (MEC Sabbatic...

Dr. Isabel Varela Nieto graduated (1981) and doctorate (1985) in Chemistry, Biochemistry Section, at the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain). EMBO fellow, enjoyed two EMBO postdoctoral fellowships at the Universities of Glasgow (UK) and Leuven (Belgium) (1986-1989). She has been visiting guest scientist at the Medical Schools of Uppsala (FEBS Fellow, 1993, Sweden) and San Diego (MEC Sabbatical, 1999-2000, USA). She has been assistant professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the UAM (1991-1992), titular scientist CSIC (1992-2002), scientific researcher (2002-2004) and Professor of Research at the CSIC in Madrid since 2005. From the early 1990s she has been interested in the study of hearing neurobiology, initially in the regulation of the embryonic development of the inner ear and in the neurogenesis of the auditory ganglion, more recently she has got interest in the pathophysiology of presbycusis, genetic and environmental models of human deafness. Her group has characterized the involvement of IGF-1 system and signaling targets in hearing loss, and has demonstrated that the oxido-inflammatory state is key to the development of the damage. She has described new aspects of: inner ear biology (apoptosis, autophagy and senescence), metabolism (methionine cycle), genetics (Igf1, Wbp2, Craf and Lat2) and identified new cochlear transcription factors (MEF2), being a pioneering group in using RNA arrays for the study of cochlear and vestibular transcriptomes. These studies are approached through the development and evaluation of cellular and animal models, the development of micro-surgery and non-invasive biology techniques for the study of auditory function, the application of micromethods to obtain massive data and the development of biostatistical methods for data analysis. The collaboration with clinical groups and companies, developed in the last five years, has complemented its work with the translation and transfer aspects, focusing on the study of molecules with potential otoprotective activity, from the functional level to the characterization of its effect on the transcriptome. The objectives are to increase basic knowledge in the field of hearing neurobiology, contribute to the development of new repair therapies and auditory regeneration, and finally make contributions that in the medium or long term can improve human health. Secretariat of the SEBBM and founder of the section Science and Society Scientific dissemination, with which she currently actively collaborates. Member of the FEBS Science and Society Committee since 2017.