Carola Maturana PhD
Princeton Neuroscience Institute
Laboratory A66
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
Carola Maturana PhD
I completed my BSc in Biochemistry at the Universidad Austral de Chile and MSc in Neuroscience at the Universidad de Valparaíso, studying effect of odorants on the expression of c-fos in zebrafish. I did my second MSc and PhD in Physiological Sciences at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. I studied involvement of connexin 43 and pannexin 1 hemichannels of gilal cells in the neuroinflammatory response induced by glucocorticoid maternal. I was awarded a grant from the Universidad Católica Accelerator Program, to study the use of selective inhibitors of hemichannels formed by connexins to treat epilepsy. Then, I moved to Colorado State University, where I worked on the modulation of anestrus in sheep by hypothalamic estrogen receptors.
In 2017 I started her Postdoc in Engel lab at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. I identified and validated three small pan-neuronal promoters isolated from the genome of the alphaherpesvirus, using in vitro and in vivo studies. I validated the transgene expression and biodistribution of the AAV vectors driven by the new and ubiquitous LAP2 promoter in peripheral organs in mouse model. Currently, I am working as Associate Research in developing and validating AAV vector expression cassette elements to enhance transgene target specificity and expression in gene therapy.