25 April 2023 Image Dr Aida Rodrigo Albors CRM welcomes our newest Principal Investigator Dr Aida Rodrigo Albors who has been awarded one of the University of Edinburgh’s prestigious Chancellor's Fellowships. Established in 2014 Chancellor’s Fellowships are five-year tenure track positions that invest in researchers delivering cutting-edge interdisciplinary research and innovation. They are designed to help the most promising academics advance from the early stages of their career to more senior roles, and to empower their ground-breaking research. They are for academics with a vision for future leadership in research and innovation, which may straddle leading a major area of research, forging new industry partnerships, or implementing research-led teaching innovations. Dr Albors is one of 3 Chancellor's Fellows joining the Institute for Regeneration and Repair. Dr Sofia Ferreira Gonzalez, a former CRM post-doctoral research fellow, is joining the Centre for Inflammation Research. The 34 new fellows will be supported to achieve their research and leadership ambitions through mentoring, peer support and training opportunities. A new round of applications for the next 30 Chancellor’s Fellows will open in Summer 2023. I am absolutely thrilled to join the Centre for Regenerative Medicine as a Chancellor’s Fellow. The CRM fosters a highly collaborative and innovative environment and has long been at the forefront of stem cell and regenerative medicine research. I eagerly look forward to contributing to the cutting-edge research while working closely with colleagues at CRM and the wider University of Edinburgh. This is such a wonderful opportunity to make a significant impact in the field of regenerative medicine. My research focuses on spinal cord regeneration. As a Chancellor’s Fellow, I will bring together my expertise working with the highly regenerative axolotl and mouse models of spinal cord injury to uncover cellular and molecular mechanisms both supporting and limiting spinal cord regeneration. In the longer term, these insights can pave the way for new strategies to regenerate the injured spinal cord in humans. Dr Aida Rodrigo Albors, Chancellor's Fellow I am delighted to welcome Aida to CRM. Her expertise in neural stem cell function in spinal cord regeneration across species promises to unveil new knowledge with potential relevance to human medicine. Professor Ian Chambers, CRM Deputy Director I am delighted to welcome three new Chancellor’s Fellows to the Institute - their exciting plans will greatly enrich our research and collaborations. I look forward to seeing their work flourish and the impact this will bring. Professor Stuart Forbes, IRR & CRM Director The funding uplift from the Scottish Funding Council following the University’s strong REF2021 results will partly fund both sets of fellows. The University was committed to ensuring principles of equality, diversity and inclusion informed the appointment process. Nearly 60 per cent of the new cohort are female and 20 per cent are from ethnic minority groups. Rodrigo Albors Research Group This article was published on 2024-02-26
