Leyre Sánchez de Muniain is representing the University of Navarra in the national round of #HiloTesis

Turning a thesis into a story that any Instagram Username can understand Instagram the challenge Leyre Sánchez de Muniain Legarrea, a doctoral student in the department Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Navarra. The predoctoral researcher was selected in the internal phase of competition a proposal brings her research the brain mechanisms involved in Alzheimer’s disease— a highly debilitating neurodegenerative disease and the leading cause of dementia worldwide—to a non-specialist audience. 

#ThesisThread is an initiative of CRUE’s knowledge dissemination Scientific Culturenetwork that invites doctoral students and recent PhD graduates to transform the academic language of their research make it more accessible to society. In this sixth edition, promoted by the University’s Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit (UCC+I Unav), the challenge to condense the thesis a Instagram , engaging, and rigorous Instagram carousel.

From laboratory Instagram

Sánchez de Muniain is writing his thesis the School of Pharmacy and Nutrition, under the supervision of professors Maite Solas and María Javier Ramírez. Her work how insulin signaling influences the functioning of astrocytes, brain cells responsible, among other functions, for managing the energy needed by neurons. “We are investigating how insulin signaling is altered—that molecule we all know and which is deeply involved in diabetes,” explains the doctoral student.

For her, this work also work a staff dimension: “It has a very strong sentimental and emotional component for families affected by Alzheimer’s, and sadly, mine was one of them.” “I never got to meet my grandfather, but I’ve always asked about him, and people have always told me what he was like,” she recalls.

Participating in #HiloTesis has allowed her to practice translating her research more accessible language. For the doctoral student, “communicating research means stepping away from the specifics of laboratory asking herself what she’s really conveying—and why it might matter to someone who doesn’t work in that field.”

With his proposal, Sánchez de Muniain sample knowledge dissemination make complex research accessible to non-specialist audiences without compromising its rigor. The results of the national round will be announced during the first half of June. In this edition, the competition six prizes of 500 euros and bring the winners together at an submission ceremony submission be held in Madrid between September and October.

In addition to the proposal by Leyre Sánchez de Muniain (School of Pharmacy and Nutrition), the following doctoral students participated in the internal phase:

• César Arenas Prado: Water doesn't clean itself (Ceit)

• Ainara Irigaray Miramón: Would you rather get the VIRAL shot or take care of your VITAL liver? (School of Medicine)

• Pepe Luna Jijón: What Almost No One Looks at When Talking About Debt (School of Science and Business)

• José Alberto Irarrázaval Cifuentes: Who decides what teenagers watch? (School of Communication)

• Silvia Gascón Corella: I’m going to be a toxicologist (School of Pharmacy and Nutrition)

• Frank Armando Ricardo Carrillo: How do you teach a robot to spot treasures among electronic waste? (Ceit)

• Ana Ojer Perea: Brand image of theSchool of Nursing