Doctor Pilar Martin

Doctor Pilar Martin

National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC), Madrid (Spain)

Dr. Pilar Martin has contributed to understand the role of Regulatory T (Treg) and Th17 cells in the development of immune responses and cardiomyopathies. Martin´s group has extensive experience in immune phenotyping based on flow, spectral and mass cytometry and extracellular vesicle micro-RNA characterization from blood of mice and patients with cardiomyopathy. Her research has contributed to established that the Treg cells have a protective role in the development of atherosclerosis, acute myocardial infarction and myocarditis, being Th17 cells critical for the development triggers of these CVD. The team has described that Th17 cells drives the development of atherosclerosis at the early stages of the disease. These data unravel Treg cells as a potential therapeutic tools to slow down atherosclerosis and myocardial damage after an ischemic event. More recently, the group has validated a novel micro-RNA for the diagnosis of acute myocarditis.