Alicia Hidalgo

Professor Alicia Hidalgo is a leading academic in neurogenetics and developmental neurobiology at the University of Birmingham’s School of Biosciences, where she directs the Birmingham Centre for Neurogenetics. She holds a PhD (DPhil) from the University of Oxford and completed postdoctoral research at institutions in Madrid, Cambridge, and the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on structural plasticity in the nervous system, neuron-glia interactions, and regeneration using Drosophila as a model organism.

Key research areas include neurotrophin signaling, Toll receptor functions, and glial gene networks for CNS repair. She has pioneered discoveries linking Toll receptors to neurotrophin signaling, revealing evolutionary conserved mechanisms in nervous system development. Her work is funded by the Wellcome Trust, BBSRC, and EU Marie Curie grants.

Notable awards include the EMBO Young Investigator Award (2001) and Fellowship from the Royal Society of Biology (2014). She contributes to editorial boards of Neuron Glia Biology and International Journal of Developmental Biology, and oversees the Birmingham Advanced Light Microscopy (BALM) facility.