Maria Rodriguez Aburto

María Rodriguez Aburto is a Senior Lecturer and Group Leader at the Department of Anatomy & Neuroscience, University College Cork (UCC), and faculty member of APC Microbiome Ireland. Her research focuses on host-microbiome interactions in neurodevelopment and gut-brain barriers. She holds a PhD in neurobiology from the Autonomous University of Madrid, followed by postdoctoral research in Frankfurt, Germany, where she published groundbreaking work on Reelin in neurovascular communication in Science.

Research Interests: María investigates how gut microbiota modulates neurovascular development, blood-brain barrier formation, and their implications in neuropsychiatric disorders. Her work integrates mouse models of microbiota disruption and genetic-environmental interactions.

Awards:

• ERC Starting Grant
• SFI-IRC Pathway Award
• Marie Curie Individual Fellowship

Labs & Teams: Director of the Aburto Lab, part of the Brain-Gut-Microbiota Axis research group at APC Microbiome Ireland. Lab activities include dissecting microbial signals affecting neural progenitors and neurovascular interactions.