Dr. Gemma Fabriàs (Barcelona, 1958) obtained the PhD in Pharmacy in 1985 by the University of Barcelona (UB).
In 1986 she became a staff scientist at the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), where she is now Research Professor. She worked for several years on insect lipid biochemistry, focusing on the biosynthetic pathways of insect sex pheromones and their neuroendocrine regulation.
This research was conducted in part as a Fulbright fellow in Prof. Wendell L. Roelofs laboratory at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (Cornell University, Geneva, NY, USA).
In 2000, she became one of the co-founders of the Research Unit on BioActive Molecules (RUBAM).
Her current research interests include the development of small molecules able to modify sphingolipid metabolism and functions and the design and biological validation of chemical probes and sensors to study lipid metabolism and to develop high throughput procedures for library screening.
She is also interested in deciphering the role of sphingolipids in autophagy. This overall research is always oriented to address physiopathological processes, with a special interest on rare diseases.