6 August 2024 – María José Pérez Jiménez moved from Chile to Germany as an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellow to explore the relationship between mitochondria and common neurodegenerative diseases. She is now based in Paris, investigating the connection with rare genetic diseases in children.
“When examining the brains of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s patient, some mitochondrial dysfunction features are also present in the children with rare genetic disorders. This raises the question: What targets can we find that are common between them?” she says.
Pérez Jiménez describes mitochondria as the powerhouse of the cell. “When mitochondria fail, the organs that are most compromised are muscles and the brain. Mitochondrial disorders progress rapidly, and you wonder what we can do for these patients with such aggressive symptoms” she says. “My focus now is to find mechanistic links between rare genetic disease and common neurological disorders, aiming to identify shared therapeutic targets for both.”
Perez Jiménez acknowledges the pivotal role of the EMBO Fellowship in her career because it offered financial flexibility and the opportunity to meet other researchers from a wide range of backgrounds at fellows’ and other EMBO meetings. “You find people that work in cancer, in Drosophila, in everything,” she says.
She is keen to expand her scientific network in Chile. “We want to do research together, apply for grants and bring students to Europe to motivate them. This is a way for me to contribute to the country without returning completely,” she says.
