Carmen Valenzuela

Carmen Valenzuela was graduated in Biology in the University Complutense of Madrid (UCM) in 1983. In 1986 she defended her Doctoral Thesis, directed by Prof. J. Tamargo, getting her PhD degree. Later, she continued her studies in foreign laboratories, at: 1) the University of Colima, Mexico (granted by the FPI Grant, Dr. Sánchez-Chapula, 1986), 2) the Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, USA (granted by a MEC/Fulbright Grant, Drs. Hondeghem and Bennett, 1988-89) and 3) the Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA (granted by a “Plan de Movilidad del Profesores de Universidad e Investigadores españoles y extranjeros” MEC (PR2003-0056), Dr. Tamkun) in 2003. In 1989 she obtained a position as a “Científico Titular” of the CSIC at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology of Madrid (CSIC-UCM) and, currently, she holds a “Investigador Científico” position at the Biomedical Research Institute Alberto Sols (CSIC-UAM) since 2003. The main scientific objective of Carmen Valenzuela research activity has been the study of the interactions between different pharmacological ligands (local anesthetics, and antiarrhythmic drugs) with cardiac voltage-dependent ion channels, mainly sodium and potassium channels; as well as their endogenous modulation. To address this objective, she has used different experimental strategies (electrophysiological and molecular biology), such as the recording of action potentials, ionic currents in isolated cardiac cells (patch-clamp technique) and different molecular and imaging biology techniques (immunocytochemistry or FRET). Currently, Carmen Valenzuela’s research focuses on the study of the signaling complexes (channelosomes) that form the ion channels together with other modulating proteins with the purpose of establishing the scientific bases that allow an optimal design of drugs useful in the treatment of different cardiovascular pathologies. During her scientific career, Dra Valenzuela has published more than 100 articles in international SCI indexed journals in the areas of Cardiovascular, Multidisciplinary, Pharmacology and Biochemistry (Circulation, Circ. Res., Cardiovasc. Res., Br. J. Pharmacol., J. Clin. Inv.), which have received more than 2800 citations. In addition, she acted as authorship of 14 book chapters, and as co-inventor of 2 patents. She has directed 14 Doctoral Theses (2 of them ongoing). Also, she participated in 22 Research Projects from the MICIU, from which she was the PI in a total of 11. Carmen Valenzuela has also participated in 10 Research Contracts with Pharmaceutical Companies, leading as a PI a total of 7. Her career has been endorsed by the granting of various scientific awards, including the “Caja Madrid Doctorate Award” for my Doctoral Thesis (1987), Award in the “Area of Pharmacology” from the Salud 2000 Foundation (1992), Award to the “Best Young Researcher” of the Spanish Society of Pharmacology (SEF) (1994) and the Award of the Royal Academy of Pharmacy (1995). She is also a member of the Editorial team of Frontiers in Cardiac Electrophysiology and Frontiers in Membrane Physiology and Biophysics and Cells.