Skip to main content
Search
Main content
Dr Blanca Diaz Castro profile picture

Dr Blanca Díaz Castro

(She/her)

Group Leader

Understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms that link brain blood vessel dysfunction and dementia

Techniques

Advanced microscopy & imaging, Bioinformatics, CRISPR, Mass spec-based proteomics, Mouse in vivo imaging, Next generation sequencing

Biography

Dr Blanca Díaz Castro’s research focuses on the understanding of astrocyte-vasculature interactions and how they are important for brain function, its communication with the periphery, and the development of dementia. In particular, Dr Blanca Díaz Castro investigates the role of the astrocyte endfoot, a very specialized compartment that allows astrocytes to mediate interactions between the brain and its blood vessels, in health and diseases that lead to cognitive decline.

Dr Blanca Díaz Castro joined the UK DRI at Edinburgh in October 2019. She obtained her PhD degree at the University of Seville - Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS) and after a brief stay at Northwestern University, Chicago, she completed her postdoctoral research at University of California, Los Angeles.

News

Key publications

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
Published
Astrocytes as Therapeutic Targets in Neurodegenerative Disorders
Authors
Isabel H Salas, Maria Alfonso-Triguero, Blanca Díaz Castro, Nimrod Elazar, Carole Escartin, Camilo Faust Akl, Steven A Hill, Francisco J Quintana, Amaia M Arranz
Astrocytes as Therapeutic Targets in Neurodegenerative Disorders
Nature communications
Published
Molecular profiling of brain endothelial cell to astrocyte endfoot communication in mouse and human
Authors
Steven A Hill, Isabel Bravo-Ferrer, Austėja Čiulkinytė, Noelia Pérez Ramos, Ilaria Rossetti, Chiara Colvin, Paula Beltran-Lobo, Carlos Parra-Pérez, Katie Emelianova, Owen Dando, Beth Geary, Raja S Nirujogi, Dario R Alessi, Do-Young Lee, Youn-Bok Lee, Blanca Díaz Castro
Molecular profiling of brain endothelial cell to astrocyte endfoot communication in mouse and human

Díaz Castro Lab

Explore the work of the Díaz Castro Lab, exploring the architecture, function and dysfunction of astrocyte-vasculature interactions

Astrocytes