Nuria Flames Bonilla

Nuria Flames Bonilla

Most used object in her work:

Worm

ERC Project (STG): “Serotonin and disease”:

Many mental disorders are related to serotonin dysfunction, but the exact mechanism underlying these disorders is not properly understood.

Serotonin-related mental disorders (SRMD) are multigenic, making it difficult to identify these mechanisms. Mutations in the serotonergic pattern can lead to defects in expressing serotonergic genes, resulting in a dysfunctional serotonergic neurone.

We are going to build a database of all the human serotonergic patterns and we will search for mutations in these sites in patients with SRMD.

Bio

I was born in Valencia in 1977. When I was small, I liked engineering, probably influenced by my father who was an industrial engineer. We both fantasized about the idea of driving electric cars or other crazy stuff. However, when I began primary school, it was the Biology classes that aroused my interest on how “living machines” worked and my mechanics fantasy took a detour into genetic engineering.

My parents taught me all about the satisfaction of a job well done and believing in achieving your goals as well as instilling love for my family. My big sister always protected me and made me laugh if I hurt myself.

I studied Biology at the University of Valencia and my first contact with Neurobiology came thanks to a CSIC student grant that allowed me to spend a few months in Jesús Ávila’s laboratory in Madrid. I have fond memories of that time. I felt very welcome inside and outside Jesús’s laboratory and I have hung on to a phrase displayed there ever since: “Inaccessible to discouragement.”

As fate would have it, I met Oscar Marín in San Francisco, when he was still a post-doctoral researcher there. I was fascinated by his work in Developmental Neurobiology and I suggested that he “adopt” me as his first PhD student. We worked together in San Francisco for 9 months until Oscar moved to the Institute of Neurosciences in Alicante (taking me with him) to form his own group. Out of all my years working in the laboratory, I’ve never worked so happily or laughed so much as this time.

After finishing my doctoral dissertation in Alicante, I moved to New York, to Oliver Hobert’s laboratory, where I discovered and fell in love with the C. elegans animal model, a little worm with neurones that are very similar to ours and which I have been working on ever since. In New York, I met the man I was going to marry who was also on a post-doc in the States. From this time, I like to remember the friendly atmosphere among colleagues in the lab and among the community of Spanish postdocs, not to mention New York’s vibrant lifestyle that I still miss.

After six years away, and 7 months pregnant with my first daughter, I returned to Valencia and started up my own group. That was more than six years ago, and my second daughter has come along in the meantime. It’s incredible how time flies. It was exciting to start the group and I feel lucky to be able to share it with laboratory members who have believed in and dedicated themselves to the project as much or more than I have. It has also been hard to balance children and work. Luckily, having my family close by has been a great help. What’s my next stop? We’ll see!

More about Nuria Flames Bonilla

Bio

I was born in Valencia in 1977. When I was small, I liked engineering, probably influenced by my father who was an industrial engineer. We both fantasized about the idea of driving electric cars or other crazy stuff. However, when I began primary school, it was the Biology classes that aroused my interest on how “living machines” worked and my mechanics fantasy took a detour into genetic engineering.

My parents taught me all about the satisfaction of a job well done and believing in achieving your goals as well as instilling love for my family. My big sister always protected me and made me laugh if I hurt myself.

I studied Biology at the University of Valencia and my first contact with Neurobiology came thanks to a CSIC student grant that allowed me to spend a few months in Jesús Ávila’s laboratory in Madrid. I have fond memories of that time. I felt very welcome inside and outside Jesús’s laboratory and I have hung on to a phrase displayed there ever since: “Inaccessible to discouragement.”

As fate would have it, I met Oscar Marín in San Francisco, when he was still a post-doctoral researcher there. I was fascinated by his work in Developmental Neurobiology and I suggested that he “adopt” me as his first PhD student. We worked together in San Francisco for 9 months until Oscar moved to the Institute of Neurosciences in Alicante (taking me with him) to form his own group. Out of all my years working in the laboratory, I’ve never worked so happily or laughed so much as this time.

After finishing my doctoral dissertation in Alicante, I moved to New York, to Oliver Hobert’s laboratory, where I discovered and fell in love with the C. elegans animal model, a little worm with neurones that are very similar to ours and which I have been working on ever since. In New York, I met the man I was going to marry who was also on a post-doc in the States. From this time, I like to remember the friendly atmosphere among colleagues in the lab and among the community of Spanish postdocs, not to mention New York’s vibrant lifestyle that I still miss.

After six years away, and 7 months pregnant with my first daughter, I returned to Valencia and started up my own group. That was more than six years ago, and my second daughter has come along in the meantime. It’s incredible how time flies. It was exciting to start the group and I feel lucky to be able to share it with laboratory members who have believed in and dedicated themselves to the project as much or more than I have. It has also been hard to balance children and work. Luckily, having my family close by has been a great help. What’s my next stop? We’ll see!

Most used object in her work:

Worm

ERC Project (STG): “Serotonin and disease”:

Many mental disorders are related to serotonin dysfunction, but the exact mechanism underlying these disorders is not properly understood.

Serotonin-related mental disorders (SRMD) are multigenic, making it difficult to identify these mechanisms. Mutations in the serotonergic pattern can lead to defects in expressing serotonergic genes, resulting in a dysfunctional serotonergic neurone.

We are going to build a database of all the human serotonergic patterns and we will search for mutations in these sites in patients with SRMD.

Research groups:

http://www3.ibv.csic.es/index.php/es/investigacion/patologia/und
http://www3.ibv.csic.es/index.php/es/cvnflames

More about Nuria Flames Bonilla