The Power of Pericytes - Dr. Isaura Martins

In this episode of Spinal Cast, we’re chatting with Dr. Isaura Martins about some seriously cool science. Her lab is digging into the world of pericytes - not the spooky creature, but a real type of cell that plays a big role in protecting the vascular barrier in the spinal cord during injury and repair.

We discuss why pericytes are critical in spinal cord recovery and how winning the Wings of Life Foundation Research Award helped kickstart her lab. We also learn about her passion for mentoring women in science through the World Women in Neuroscience.

She’s not just a rockstar researcher - she’s helping shape the future of neuroscience and making the case for why supporting science benefits everyone. Turns out pericytes aren’t spooky at all.

Special thanks to Dr. Martins for being our guest! This production is a collaborative effort of volunteers working to create a quality audio and visual experience around the subject of spinal cord injury. A special shout out of appreciation to Clientek for providing studio space and top-notch recording equipment. Most importantly, thank YOU for being part of the Spinal Cast audience!

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Links of interest associated with this episode:

Neurotrauma Lab (Isaura Martins, PhD): http://www.imartinslab.com/

World Women in Neuroscience - https://worldwomenneuro.org/

Bio for Isaura Martins, PhD follows:

Dr. Isaura Martins has a degree in Biochemistry from University of Coimbra, Portugal, where she also did her Masters. It was during this time that she fell in love with Neuroscience. This led to a Bachelor and Master Thesis at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology - CNC, where she worked with cell culture of hippocampal neurons and leptin and ghrelin as neuroprotector agents against neurotoxicity of Abeta Oligomers. She then pursued a PhD in Neuroscience at University of Manchester, UK, exploring the role of high-fat diets in the triple transgenic model of Alzheimer´s as well as its impact on blood brain barrier and memory. She returned to Portugal in 2015 as a postdoctoral fellow at Leonor Saúde’s Lab at Institute of Molecular Medicine (iMM) and started to work on spinal cord injury, where she implemented the contusion mouse model. In 2024 Dr. Martins started her own laboratory at Católica Medical School - Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Health, where she focuses on neurovascular components of the blood spinal cord barrier and their role in spinal cord repair.