Dr Carolina Gubert (Australia) is the winner of the 2024 FAOBMB Young Scientist Award (Female)
Dr Carolina Gubert
Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Australia
Dr Carolina Gubert is a research fellow who leads the microbiota-gut-brain axis team of the Epigenetics and Neural Plasticity Group of the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. She completed her Masters degree and PhD in Biochemistry at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (both with scholarships funded by the Brazilian Government, 2012-2018).
She won a Brazilian-funded Fellowship (2018-2020), joining Professor Anthony Hannan’s laboratory at the Florey Institute in 2018. This fellowship allowed Carolina to get started in incorporating gut microbial community modulation into her neuroscience research background. Dr Gubert’s current interests focus on gene-environment interactions and the microbiota-gut-brain axis in brain disorders, including Huntington’s disease and schizophrenia. She has also been investigating the gut microbiome role in modulating the epigenetic inheritance and its potential to affect the next generation. Dr Gubert intends to not only modulate brain disorders but also understand and mitigate the potential missing heritability of mental health issues.
Dr Gubert’s international recognition in the field is demonstrated by her current fellowship being awarded by a leading US-based foundation, the Hereditary Disease Foundation. In total, she has attracted over $350,000 in research funding to date.
Dr Gubert has over 45 publications in leading journals (e.g., Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Brain Communications, Brain Behavior and Immunity, iScience (Cell Press), Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, Psychiatry Research). She has also received 19 prestigious career awards, including the most recent: the 2023 Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation (BGRF) Emerging Researcher of the Year.