RCMI People

Dr Sanchez is a biomedical scientist with international research experience in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry (Crucell, now Janssen Vaccines and Prevention, in The Netherlands and AstraZeneca in Sweden). She received her bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical industrial chemistry from the ENCB-IPN in Mexico. As an Utrecht Excellence Scholarship awardee, she completed her master’s degree in biomedical sciences at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. She received her PhD degree in biological sciences from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Dr Sanchez has participated in a wide variety of research projects, including those on depression, mental health, renal medicine, and viral vaccine development. As a postdoctoral fellow, she studied the crosstalk molecular mechanisms of receptor tyrosine kinases relevant to kidney pathologies in a collaborative project between the University of Gothenburg and AstraZeneca in Sweden. As a project leader, she has coordinated projects on mental health and developed digital mental health interventions in collaboration with universities in Switzerland, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.

Dr Sanchez is particularly interested in understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms of psychiatric and neurological disorders as well as the therapeutic effect of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Her research focuses on neurogenesis, a plasticity mechanism associated with the pathophysiology of neurological and affective disorders, and the effect of CAM on neurogenesis using animal models. She has participated in projects evaluating the effect of single drugs, hormones, aromatherapy, traditional Chinese medicine, and social isolation on neurogenesis and its role in mood and affective disorders. She has presented her work at international conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals such as Neuroscience, Frontiers in Neuroscience, Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and successfully obtained funding to conduct research on renal medicine and mental health.