Staff Profile

Elisa is currently a Research Associate at the John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre (JWMDRC), Newcastle University. She previously worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Cardiovascular Science, Queens Medical Research Institute, the University of Edinburgh (2019-2022). She holds a BSc in Nutrition and Dietetics from the Universidad Mayor, Chile. In addition to an MSc in Human Nutrition from the University of Chile and a PhD. in Nutrition and Food Science from the same institution. She has over 10-year of experience in metabolic research which has spanned adipose biology, inflammation, and cardiovascular remodelling. As a Visiting Researcher and then Postdoc at UT Southwestern, she published over 10 articles, establishing an exceptional network of international collaborators. In her position as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Edinburgh. she worked with Professor Brian Walker, exploring the transmembrane transport of steroids, in which she has initiated an independent line of inquiry to document ABCC1 action in skeletal muscle and its effects on glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity. Elisa joined the JWMDRC in 2022, to expand her expertise on muscle pathology, by the study of the molecular mechanisms of Muscular Dystrophies (DMD) and the role of Fibro/Adipogenic Progenitors (FAPs) and their cell fate on the progression and phenotype of it.

Honours and Awards

Trampoline Grant - AFM-Telethon

Trampoline Grant (£35k) Awarded by the French Muscular Dystrophy Association (Aug 2024- Aug 2025). Project title: Stiffness-DMD: Deciphering the role of stiffness in the commitment of fibro/adipogenic progenitors in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Research Grant - Society for Endocrinology

Research Grant (£3k) Awarded by the British Society for Endocrinology (Jul 2024- Jul 2025). Project title: Role of stiffness in adipogenesis of preadipocytes and fibro/adipogenic progenitors 

Early Career Grant - Society for Endocrinology

Early Career Grant (£10k) Awarded by the British Society for Endocrinology (Aug 2020- 21). The focus of this project was to unveil the role of the glucocorticoid transporter ABCC1 on glucose homeostasis in skeletal muscle.

NUT1005 - Human Physiology and Practical Skills (Statistics)

• Articles

  • Pinol-Jurado P, Verdu-Diaz J, Fernandez-Simon E, Dominguez-Gonzalez C, Hernandez-Lain A, Lawless C, Vincent A, Gonzalez-Chamorro A, Villalobos E, Monceau A, Laidler Z, Mehra P, Clark J, Filby A, McDonald D, Rushton P, Bowey A, Alonso Perez J, Tasca G, Marini-Bettolo C, Guglieri M, Straub V, Suarez-Calvet X, Diaz-Manera J. Imaging mass cytometry analysis of Becker muscular dystrophy muscle samples reveals different stages of muscle degeneration. Scientific Reports 2024, 14(1), 3365.
  • Monceau A, Nath RG, Suarez-Calvet X, Musumeci O, Toscano A, Kierdaszuk B, Kostera-Pruszczyk A, Dominguez-Gonzalez C, Hernandez-Lain A, Paradas C, Rivas E, Papadimas G, Papadopoulos C, Chrysanthou-Piterou M, Gallardo E, Olivé M, Lilleker J, Roberts ME, Marchese D, Lunazzi G, Heyn H, Fernandez-Simon E, Villalobos E, Clark J, Katsikis P, Collins C, Mehra P, Laidler Z, Vincent A, Tasca G, Marini-Bettolo C, Guglieri M, Straub V, Raben N, Diaz-Manera J. Decoding the muscle transcriptome of patients with late-onset Pompe disease reveals markers of disease progression. Brain 2024, 147(12), 4213-4226.
  • Villalobos E, Miguelez-Crespo A, Morgan RA, Ivatt L, Kurian D, Aguilar J, Kline RA, Wishart TM, Morton NM, Stimson RH, Andrew R, Walker BR, Nixon M. ATP-binding cassette family C member 1 constrains metabolic responses to high-fat diet. Journal of Endocrinology 2024, 262(2), e240024.
  • Suarez-Calvet X, Fernandez-Simon E, Natera D, Jou C, Pinol-Jurado P, Villalobos E, Ortez C, Monceau A, Schiava M, Codina A, Verdu-Diaz J, Clark J, Laidler Z, Mehra P, Gokul-Nath R, Alonso-Perez J, Marini-Bettolo C, Tasca G, Straub V, Guglieri M, Nascimento A, Diaz-Manera J. Decoding the transcriptome of Duchenne muscular dystrophy to the single nuclei level reveals clinical-genetic correlations. Cell Death and Disease 2023, 14(9), 596.
  • Bell RMB, Villalobos E, Nixon M, Miguelez-Crespo A, Murphy L, Fawkes A, Coutts A, Sharp MGF, Koerner MV, Allan E, Meijer OC, Houtman R, Odermat A, Beck KR, Denham SG, Lee P, Homer NZM, Walker BR, Morgan RA. Carbonyl reductase 1 amplifies glucocorticoid action in adipose tissue and impairs glucose tolerance in lean mice. Molecular Metabolism 2021, 48, 101225.

• Review

  • Devine K, Villalobos E, Kyle CJ, Andrew R, Reynolds RM, Stimson RH, Nixon M, Walker BR. The ATP-binding cassette proteins ABCC1 and ABCB1 as modulators of glucocorticoid action. Nature Reviews Endocrinology 2022.