To hear her keenly recalling her life as a young researcher today, it’s hard to think that Ana Carmena Moratalla first set foot in Montreal in 2015, not speaking a word of French. However, she brought with her a master’s degree in neuroscience from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the intuition that she would thrive at the CHUM Research Centre.
Back in Spain, she had had a glimpse of what awaited her on the other side of the Atlantic by looking through a virtual window. Nathalie Arbour, the manager of the Neuroscience Research Theme, was on the other side of that window, waiting for her.
“I talked remotely with Nathalie to discuss a doctoral position that she had posted on a European website. I liked the topic a great deal and she allowed me to meet her team. She was inviting me into her laboratory!” she recalls.
An unusual type of recruitment for this Old World native, as possibilities for doctoral studies are very limited in Spain.
The call was too strong. A new chapter of her life would start in Montreal. For more than six years now, Ana Carmena Moratalla has been working on the 9th floor of the Research Centre, occasionally gazing out at the view of Old Port, looking at her adopted city and thinking about the journey she has taken.
A disease still not understood
In the laboratory, she studies the interactions between the immune system and the central nervous system in multiple sclerosis.
In Canada, more than 90,000 people live with this disease, which causes debilitating vision, memory, balance and mobility problems. That’s more than the number of Canadians with HIV. But it’s rarely talked about.
Scientists know that immune system dysregulation incites T lymphocytes, white blood cells responsible for activating the body’s defence system against infections, to attack healthy nervous tissue in the body, whether in the brain or spinal cord.
In plain English, the disease targets myelin, a protective sheath surrounding nerve fibres, causing inflammation and leading to the deterioration of this substance essential to the transmission of nerve impulses.
Complex mechanisms
To stop the progression of this autoimmune disease one day, Arbour and her team are tracking, in the immensity of the brain, the molecules responsible for it.
Ana Carmena Moratalla, who recently obtained her PhD, is part of this scientific saga.
In 2021, using tissues from patients who died of multiple sclerosis, she succeeded in showing that the level of an altered protein, known as ULBP4, is high in their brains, which contributes, through different mechanisms, to general inflammation. Ultimately, this protein could be a therapeutic target.
“We are still in the discovery phase. We now have to validate our published data obtained using human samples in mice models. We will then be able to see if we have a real impact on the disease.”
This approach sets them apart on the research scene in Canada. In Nathalie Arbour’s laboratory, scientists always begin their research with observations made on patients or their tissues before validating them in animal models.
“I’m very satisfied with this discovery. Nathalie is, too. It wasn’t an easy project, but it was worthwhile if we can develop a therapy. Helping patients is the goal of our research!”
A welcoming environment
At the Research Centre, the young researcher has enjoyed collaborating closely with the core research teams of Dr. Catherine Larochelle and Dr. Alexandre Prat, not to mention being able to count on the support of the neurologists in the CHUM’s multiple sclerosis clinic—Dr. Marc Girard and Dr. Pierre Duquette—and on the quality and abundance of the biobank samples.
Thanks to a grant from the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, Ana Carmena Moratalla has not only benefitted from scientific training with other research laboratories in Canada, but has also met patients.
Conversing with them, listening to their needs and understanding how they see our research is very enriching. These invaluable human contacts allow us to feel that we can really help improve their lives.
Today, the young woman would like to try her hand at research in another environment: industry. The opportunities in Montreal are numerous, as are her contacts.
And, “the reputation of the Research Centre and the technical expertise I have gained at the cytometry and cellular imaging core facilities thanks to the Research Centre staff are additional advantages when it comes to being recruited.”
Does she miss her native Spain? Sometimes, but the Hispanic community is never very far. She just has to open the door of the laboratory next door to reconnect with her roots. Like Ana Carmena Moratalla, the CHUM Research Centre is multilingual.
Multiple sclerosis, a silent disease