Unveiling Non-Canonical Functions for Gαq Signaling Pathways

About Catalina Ribas

"Dr. Catalina Ribas, is currently an Associate Professor at the University Autonomous of Madrid (UAM) and she has been Academic Secretary of Molecular Biology Department for several years. The research group led by Dr. Catalina Ribas, located in the Centro de Biología Molecular “Severo Ochoa” (UAM/CSIC) and belongs also to the Health Research Institute La Princesa, has extensive experience in the field of GPCR. Dr. Catalina Ribas made a postdoctoral stay in the laboratory of Dr. SM. Lanier in the MUSC (USA). During this period and her doctoral thesis, she has deepened the regulatory mechanisms of GPCR signaling. In her postdoctoral period, she has participated in the identification and characterization of proteins that act at the level of G proteins and which are part of a multimolecular signaling complex (AGS, de “Activators of G-protein signaling). In Spain, Dr. Ribas continued working on the regulation of GPCR. The group of Dr. Ribas has characterized the existence of a new signaling pathway with a relevant role in cardiac hypertrophy led by a new Gαq interactome. Recently, Dr. Ribas' group has described a new interaction region in a cellular protein that has turned out to be very relevant in the control of the cellular process known as autophagy. These results have been published in the journal Nature Communications (12 (1):4540, 2021) with the title "Gαq controls autophagy via modulation of the mTORC1 signaling hub". Furthermore, Dr. Ribas has also described a new protective role of G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2), a known regulator of Gq-GPCR signaling in HNSCC tumor progression (International Journal of Cancer, 2020)."

Catalina Ribas on the web

• Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Center

• X (Twitter)

• Dr. GPCR