Neuroepigenetics Mechanisms in Health and Disease

Dr. Brigitte van Zundert graduated as a Biochemist at the Hogeschool West-Brabant, The Netherlands in 1993, and subsequently obtained her Master's degree in Molecular Biology at the University of Utrecht in 1996, while conducting her thesis at the University of Massachusetts, focusing on transcriptional regulation. In 2002, Dr. Brigitte van Zundert earned her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of Concepción (Chile), where she studied the molecular mechanisms underlying glycine receptor clustering at synapses. Following this, she completed a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Medical School. During her postdoctoral work, she focused on the role of synaptic glutamatergic receptors and their anchoring proteins in synapse development, as well as on characterizing early pathology in neonatal animal models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an adult neurodegenerative disease. In 2005, she established her independent laboratory in Chile at the University of Concepción and transitioned in 2010 to Andrés Bello University in Santiago, where she currently holds the position of Professor and Principal Investigator at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences. Since 2020, she is also serving as an Adjunct Professor at UMass Medical School, and since 2023 as the Director of the Millennium Nucleus in Neuroepigenetics and Plasticity, EpiNeuro. Dr. van Zundert's research investigates the cellular and molecular mechanisms driving brain plasticity and neuroepigenetics, with a focus on learning and memory in healthy conditions, as well as the study of neurodegenerative diseases including ALS, frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease. More recently, her lab has begun to elucidate the epigenetic mechanisms by which external factors (e.g., urban air pollution) contribute to disease pathogenesis and cognitive deficits. The fundamental premise of her research is that the acquired knowledge will contribute to the development of effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies aimed at slowing disease progression and, more ambitiously, preventing, halting, or even reversing the devastating effects of neurodegenerative conditions.

Dr. Martin Montecino graduated as a biochemist from the University of Concepción, Chile, in 1989 and received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, USA, in 1996. He has been working in the field of epigenetic control of gene expression since he was a graduate student and later as an independent researcher at the University of Concepción in 1997, where he became Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2004. In 2010, he moved to the Andres Bello University, in Santiago, Chile, where he is currently Professor and Director of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences and Deputy Director of the Millennium Nucleus of Neuroepigenetics and Plasticity, EpiNeuro. Dr. Martin Montecino's research program is mainly concerned with the epigenetic mechanisms that mediate chromatin remodeling and transcriptional activity during lineage commitment in mammalian cells. Special attention has been devoted to studying these mechanisms during mesenchymal-osteoblastic differentiation, concentrating efforts on bone-specific genes that are regulated in response to extracellular stimuli, including vitamin D3 and BMP. In recent years, his research focus has also been directed towards defining the epigenetic mechanisms associated with the expression of critical genes during neural cell differentiation and function.