Cristina Reschke

Cristina leads the pre-clinical research partnership with Roche in the FutureNeuro Centre and holds a Lectureship position in the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences (SPBS) at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). Currently, the overarching theme of Cristina’s research is to understand the interplay between circadian rhythm regulation and epilepsy, exploring the molecular and genetic mechanisms involved, and on the pre-clinical discovery of novel treatments for the prevention of seizures through brain targeted drug delivery.

Her training was as a Pharmacist with clinical experience, practicing in hospital pharmacy, prior to her MSc and PhD in Pharmacology which was focused on epilepsy treatment (Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil). Shortly after her PhD (2013), Cristina was awarded an Irish Research Council postdoctoral fellowship and joined Prof. Henshall’s group at RCSI. From her postdoctoral training, she has major discoveries on microRNA-based therapies and the development of novel oligonucleotide delivery routes for disease-modification in epilepsy, which was internationally recognized by the scientific community (>20 invited talks, 11 Prizes/Awards, including from the International League Against Epilepsy [ILAE] and American Epilepsy Society [AES]). In 2017, Cristina was appointed as Honorary Lecturer at RCSI and was awarded an SFI-TIDA to explore alternative approaches for targeted brain delivery, starting her pathway towards independent research. This led her to participate in the USA-based training on Entrepreneurship and Innovation (SFI/NSF I-Corps) under the mentorship of Prof. Matthew Campbell (TCD; PI-FN) and Dr. Seamus Browne (RCSI; Head of Industry Partnerships). Upon successful completion, the team received the Trailblazer Award 2019 endowed by UCBerkeley, UCSF and Stanford Universities for the I-Corps Programme.

Cristina also actively participates as a member of ILAE and the Young Epilepsy Section (YES)/ILAE Task Forces, serving in scientific committees. She was recently elected the YES European Representative for the ‘Research Advocacy and Priorities ILAE Task Force’ and as a member of the Scientific Organization Committee of the 34th International Epilepsy Congress, which will be held in Paris (2021).