Valentina Rose Garbarino, Ph.D.

I am a translational neurobiologist with formal training in the areas of the biology of aging, neuroscience, physiology and pharmacology, and translational science. My faculty appointment within the University of Texas Health Science Center is supported through a partnership between the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Department of Cell Systems and Anatomy. My academic research focus utilizes translational neurobiology to studying the mechanistic links between chronic stress and neurodegenerative disease risk and pathology to identify novel therapeutic opportunities.

I am a 2018 graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio Integrated Biomedical Science Program. Though I am a basic scientist by training, my postdoctoral experience afforded a unique training opportunity in discovery, translational and clinical science, allowing me to actively transition potential therapeutics for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease from basic science experiment directly into clinical populations. The opportunity to interact and serve the individuals and families afflicted with neurodegenerative disease is the greatest privilege of my career.

Throughout my research training, I have utilized cell culture models, mouse models of neurodegenerative disease, naked mole rats as an aging and resilience model, and worked with clinical populations relevant to both healthy brain aging and neurodegenerative disease. I am involved in clinical trial studies evaluating the safety and efficacy of repurposed medications (senolytics, mTOR inhibitor rapamycin), to therapeutically target aberrant pathway activities related to aberrant aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Being able to ask questions and design experiments relevant to multiple parts of the translational science spectrum has been a great asset to my scientific repertoire and has provided a broader vision for my work. My team and I are now exploring the relationship between chronic stress and Alzheimer’s disease risk and pathophysiology. Our goal is to identify minimally invasive health and disease state biofluid biomarkers (in saliva, plasma) to support early detection and the identification of novel mechanistic targets and interventional tools for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.