We were very excited and honored to welcome Professor Rae Silver to Bilbao and Achucarro for her visit. She is a Professor at Barnard College and Columbia University (NYC, USA). Over the course of her career, Prof. Rae Silver has held many positions on committees in services to the educational community, the scientific and research community. Among these, she has been co-chair for NASA’s Research Maximization and Prioritization Committee, chair of Scientific Council of the Human Frontiers Science Program, and Senior Advisor at the National Science Foundation.

We are particularly interested in her research since she has published more than 200 papers on the field of neuroendocrinology and circadian biology. Her paper published in Nature in 1996 was a major breakthrough, where she demonstrated that the master clock in the suprachiasmatic nuclei can sustain circadian activity rhythms by means of diffusible signals🤯.

During her talk at the Achucarro Seminar on Friday, Prof. Rae Silver shared another major breakthrough. Her lab, in collaboration with Dr. Javier Stern Lab, demonstrated the presence of other portal systems in the brain, almost 100 years after the discovery of the portal pathway linking the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland!! These discoveries have a huge potential to better understand how the brain works. Her talked sparked a lot of interest and a refreshing approach to look at science and its challenges keeping always in mind the “big picture”. Before the seminar, our researchers had the opportunity to talk to Prof. Silver about ongoing experiments and future plans. 

Science aside, Prof. Silver had the opportunity to taste the delicious food that Bilbao has to offer and to pay a visit to the iconic Puppy which is always a highlight🌸. 

We are very grateful to Prof. Rae Silver for the visit and her fascinating seminar, and we hope to cross paths in the near future!