Dr. Concepcion Padilla is a Sara Borrell researcher interested in the early detection of dementia in Down syndrome. To this end, she works developing computerized tests and investigating in the neuroimaging biomarkers that can facilitate the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in this population.
Dr. Padilla has a degree in Psychology by the Autonomous University of Madrid and completed a Professional Master’s degree and a Research Master’s degree in Intervention of Language Disorders at the Complutense University of Madrid. Later, she obtained a scholarship by the Ministry of Sciences (Spain) to carry out a PhD in Neurosciences at the University of the Balearic Islands, investigating the role of physical exercise in the prevention of cognitive decline. During her PhD, she did a research stay at the Lifelong Brain and Cognition Lab (Beckman Institute, University of Illinois Urbana – Champaign, USA), and a second stay at the Brain, Mind, and Behavior Research Center (University of Granada), where she got experienced in different neuroimaging techniques (structural, functional, and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging). Subsequently, she was hired as a Research Associate at the Cambridge Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Group at the University of Cambridge, where she investigated about the effect of beta-amyloid and tau proteins in the brain of adults with dementia and Down syndrome, using magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography.
Concepcion Padilla has combined her research work with clinical practice as well as lecturing at different universities in Spain. She is certified as a clinical neuropsychologist (Ministry of Health, Spain) and as a Lecturer for Public and Private Universities (ANECA and AQU Catalunya).