Mara Dierssen is a medical doctor and obtained her PhD from the University of Cantabria in 1989. She heads the Cellular and Systems Neurobiology group of the Systems and Synthetic Biology program at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona.

The goal of Dierssen’s research is to understand mechanisms underlying cognition and behaviour and their perturbation in mental disorders. She is a world expert in the field of Down syndrome research and her contributions have been published in more than 2020 peer-reviewed papers, including high impact factor journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, PNAS, Molecular Psychiatry, Lancet Neurology, among others. Dierssen has received many awards for her work including Ramón Trias Fargas, Jaime Blanco or Sisley-Lejeune awards and the National Science Award from the Government of Catalonia.

She is past-president of the Spanish Society of Neuroscience, of the International Behavioral and Neural Genetics Society, an executive committee member of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and president of the Trisomy 21 Research Society. She is member of the editorial boards for Genes Brain and Behavior and Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, among others and acts as an evaluator of different scientific committees and boards such as the National Evaluation Agency, Spanish Ministry of Science, and panel expert for European Research Council.

She is a fellow of the Academia Europaea, the Royal Academy of Medicine, the European DANA Allianze for the Brain, distinguished alumni of the University of Cantabria, and distinguished fellow, and silver medal of the College of Medicine.

She was an associated professor of the University of Cantabria and the University Ramon Llull in Barcelona.

The Dierssen lab has made important contributions to the understanding of the neuropathology of Down syndrome and genetic mental illnesses. Dierssen is also a strong advocate of science at the public level.

She is lead vocalist of a rock band devoted to solidarity projects and science communication.