After graduating in Biochemistry (2002) at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) I joined the Laboratory of Neurobiology led by Carlos Matute to complete my PhD through the study of calcium homeostasis and neuroprotection in CNS in vitro models. During this period (2005-2009) I studied how Ca2+ release from the ER contributes to excitotoxicity in neurons (Ruiz et al. 2009 Cell Calcium) and oligodendrocytes (Ruiz et al. 2010 Cell Death Dis). As a postdoctoral researcher, and still in the Laboratory of Neurobiology, I described calcium-related neuroprotective mechanisms of the benzodiazepine CGP37157 (Ruiz et al. 2014 Cell Death Dis) and the quinazolinone mdivi-1 (Ruiz et al. 2018, Front Mol Neurosci), and gained experience on super-resolution microscopy, gene silencing and Seahorse technology for in vitro metabolic studies. My current research is focused on elucidating the contribution of the UPR (unfolded protein response) to mitochondrial function, metabolism, Ca2+ signaling and eventually cell fate of glial cells and neurons in CNS damage conditions, using live cell confocal imaging and molecular and cell biology approaches.