Dr. Maria J. Fernandez-Cabezudo was born in Madrid (Spain) where she graduated in Biological Sciences and obtained her PhD in Cell Biology-Immunology at the Complutense University. To continue her education, she moved to the USA to pursue her post-doctoral training at Yale University School of Medicine. At Yale University, she worked in the lab of the prominent immunologist Prof. Charles Janeway Jr, a leading scientist in the field. It was at Yale University where she also met Basel Al-Ramadi, another postdoctoral fellow in the lab, who became her husband and with whom she moved to UAE and began her long professional and personal career. After her son, Khalil, was born, she dedicated to him the most joyful and rewarding seven years of her life. She formally resumed her professional career in 2001 when she joined the Department of Biochemistry at the College of Medicine & Health Sciences (CMHS), United Arab Emirates University (UAEU).

Maria is actively involved in teaching, supervising research projects and coordinating courses for medical and postgraduate students. Her research interests are focused on different aspects of the immune system, particularly on the relationship between the nervous and immune systems.  A key focus of Maria’s laboratory is to understand the underlying mechanisms by which neurotransmitters can regulate the inflammatory response in infectious and autoimmune disease models and the potential of neuro-immune modulation in cancer immunotherapy. These research projects are supported by grants from the CMHS and UAEU. The findings from Dr Maria’s laboratory are published in high impact scientific journals and regularly presented in international medical science conferences.

She enjoys being around family and friends back home. In her spare time she loves to swim, read, listen to music and travel around the world with her husband and son.