Principal Investigator

Ester Aso graduated in Biology at the Universitat de Barcelona (2001). She received the PhD degree in Health and Life Sciences from Universitat Pompeu Fabra in 2008, under the supervision of Prof. Rafael Maldonado and Prof. Olga Valverde. During her predoctoral studies, she performed research projects aimed to evaluate the participation of endogenous cannabinoid system (ECS) in affective disorders, including depression and anxiety. From 2009 to February 2018 she was postdoctoral researcher in the Institute of Neuropathology, Pathological Anatomy Service at the Bellvitge University Hospital, directed by Prof. Isidre Ferrer. Her research interests within the Institute of Neuropathology focused on the potential utility of cannabinoid compounds for treating Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Thus, based on an animal model of the disease, she demonstrated that natural cannabinoids are able to reduce the cognitive impairment and multiple pathological processes associated to AD when administered at the early stages of the disease. These preclinical findings laid the groundwork for a bench-to-bedside project to evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of a cannabis-based medicine in AD patients. In March 2018 she joined the Prof. Francisco Ciruela’s group in the Department of Pathology and Experimental Therapeutics at the University of Barcelona as a Tenured Assistant Professor of Pharmacology. Her current research work focuses on unraveling the molecular mechanisms underlying cannabinoid effects in the brain.