Dr. Estefanía Martínez Albert wins poster award at GEBIN 2025

Dr. Estefanía Martínez Albert from the Neuroimmunology Group at IfADo has been awarded the Young Presenter Poster Award at the “16th German Endocrine Brain Immune Network (GEBIN) Conference 2025” in Gießen.

Dr. Martínez Albert presented her research on sex-specific differences in the formation of dopamine transporters (DAT) in immune cells. Although dopamine is primarily known as a neurotransmitter in the brain, DAT are also found in certain immune cells, where they control dopamine availability. This, in turn, affects how these cells respond to infections and inflammation.

Her findings show that DAT modulate inflammatory responses differently in men and women. This is particularly notable in natural killer cells, which can recognize and destroy virus-infected or abnormal cells. In these cells, DAT regulate dopamine availability and thereby influence their activity.

In the long term, these findings may contribute to the development of more targeted, sex-specific therapies and improve our understanding of immune system mechanisms.