During life, every organism is exposed to diverse stress stimuli. The adaptation capacity is critical to maintain the homeostasis and ensure survival. Under stress conditions, eukaryotic cells activate a common adaptive pathway, termed the integrated stress response (ISR), to restore cellular homeostasis. Her research is focuses in understanding the contribution of this signaling pathway, which is driven by four kinases that phosphorylates the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2 alpha (eIF2a), to neurodegenerative process and aging. Using in vivo and in vitro models, she studies the consequences of targeting ISR components in aging and to open new therapeutic strategies for treating neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr. Soledad Matus completed her PhD in Biological Sciences at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. Then she performed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Faculty of Medicine Universidad de Chile, working in stress response signaling pathways in Neurodegenerative Diseases. Then she joined the Fundación Ciencia & Vida, leading the laboratory of “Biology of Neurodegeneration”. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at “Universidad San Sebastián”, and the Deputy Director of “Centro BASAL Ciencia & Vida”.

Dr. Soledad Matus teaches the mechanisms of Neurodegeneration and Stress Responses at Facultad de Medicina y Ciencia of Universidad San Sebastián in the Ph.D. program in Cellular Biology and Biomedicine. She is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Ph.D. Program.