People

Carmen Muñoz-Ballester obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Biology and her Master’s degree in at the University of Valencia (Spain), where she is originally from. After that, she joined Dr. Pascual Sanz’s laboratory at the Institute of Biomedicine of Valencia (CSIC), where she completed her doctoral studies, graduating in 2017 with a PhD in Biotechnology. During those years, she studied the molecular basis of epilepsy in a fatal rare disorder known as Lafora disease and discovered her passion for astrocytes. Astrocytes are non-neuronal cells in the brain which play important roles in maintaining brain homeostasis and are very important in many neurological conditions, as they respond very rapidly to the brain. To continue her training in astrocyte response to injury, Carmen moved to the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech in 2018 to start her postdoctoral training with Dr. Stefanie Robel, and later moved with Dr. Robel to the University of Alabama at Birmingham. During her postdoc, Carmen studied the astrocyte response to mild traumatic brain injury. In August 2024, she started her own laboratory at UMBC where she focuses in how astrocytes respond to injury in the female brain. In her free time, Carmen loves reading, hiking, learning languages, travelling, doing indoor cycling and chocolate. She hates the Oxford comma.

Iris Indig is excited to be a member of the Muñoz-Ballester lab! Iris is a PhD student in the Biological Sciences Program at UMBC. She obtained her Bachelors of Arts from the same institution, and then went to complete a post-baccalaureate fellowship as part of the IRTA program at the National Cancer Institute, NIH. As an IRTA fellow, she studied a rare hypoxia related gene mutation in HIF2ɑ at the lab of Dr. Zhengping Zhuang. In the Muñoz-Ballester lab she will focus on studying the blood brain barrier and its relationship with traumatic brain injury, astrocytes and sex differences. Beyond research, she enjoys crocheting, reading and birding.

Mandi Lichtenstein is a PhD student in the Biological Sciences program at UMBC, and is excited to be a part of the Muñoz-Ballester lab. Originally from New Jersey, she earned her Bachelor’s degree in biotechnology from Elon University in North Carolina, where she conducted computational genomics research in Dr. Andrea Perreault’s lab, studying the transition between hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Her research in the Muñoz-Ballester lab focuses on understanding species-specific differences in astrocyte biology by creating a chimeric mouse model in which human iPSC-derived astrocytes are integrated into the mouse brain. Using this model, she plans to investigate astrocyte responses to traumatic brain injury (TBI), with a particular emphasis on sex differences and the influence of estrogen. Her work also explores how the menstrual cycle and menopausal status affect astrocyte-mediated neuroprotection and blood-brain barrier integrity.
In her free time, she coaches the local swim team, enjoys listening to audiobooks, is a devoted dog lover and Taylor Swift fan, and loves to travel. A lifelong science enthusiast, she is especially excited to delve into the molecular biology of the brain and its connection to health and disease.

Adrian Auber is a PhD student in the Neuroscience and Cognitive Sciences Program at UMBC and is excited to be a member of the Muñoz-Ballester lab. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience with a minor in Business Administration from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where he was also a collegiate baseball player and team captain. Prior to joining UMBC, he conducted research on vaping, sleep deprivation, and seizure susceptibility in zebrafish in Dr. Daniel Tobiansky’s lab, as well as epilepsy and cortical malformations in Dr. Phillip Iffland II’s lab at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. In the Muñoz-Ballester lab, his research focuses on how astrocytes and blood-brain barrier transcytosis contribute to post-traumatic epileptogenesis following traumatic brain injury, with a particular interest in neuroinflammation and sex differences. Outside of research, Adrian enjoys golfing, making and listening to music, science communication, and spending time with friends and family.

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