Gabriela Rodrigues

My research focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms during muscle development and disease. Namely, I am interested in how the extracellular matrix and the niche around cells shape their behaviour and homeostasis.  I focused in cell biology in in vitro systems during my PhD work and later used this knowledge to approach developmental biology and some applications in the bioengineering field. I am currently interested in studying the mechanisms of onset of  LAMA2-congenital muscle dystrophy, to which field I wish to contribute by developing in vitro models such as muscle-neural organoids, among others. My current research is driven by the objective of identifying pathways that are altered in the diseased muscle and that could be targeted in an integrated biomedical approach.