Early Stage Researchers (ESRs)

Karina Santiago Gonzalez (ESR 2)

Project 2: Forebrain regulation of the stress response in chickens

Locations: Newcastle University with secondment locations at Institut de Recerca Biomedica de Lleida & Hendrix Genetics

Karina Santiago Gonzalez studied Biology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She began her scientific career in 2012 at the laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology in the National Institute of Psychiatry in Mexico performing research related to the behavioural effects of substances of abuse and sucrose addiction. Following an Erasmus Mundus award, Karina studied at the University of Antwerp with cellular and molecular biology specialization at the University of Naples Federico II. She received a MSc in Comparative Vertebrate Morphology in 2019 defending her thesis on the effects of intrauterine crowding on myelination in the piglet. Karina is now working towards her PhD at the Neuroscience Institute of the Newcastle University under the supervision of Dr Tom Smulders and Dr Tim Boswell. Her project investigates the role of the hippocampus and hippocampal neurogenesis in feedback regulation of the HPA axis in birds.