August 2024 – Patricio Araos Salas (Chile)

1. Tell us about yourself.

I am 38 years old; I was born in Santiago, Chile. I studied Biochemistry as an undergraduate. Then I did my PhD in Pharmacology and concluded a few years ago my postdoc. From my undergraduate thesis to date, my interest has been one, hypertension. I have approached this from different aspects, from pharmacology to immunology. Currently, I am assistant professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Chile and head of the Hypertension and Kidney Immunology Laboratory. Additionally, I teach the Pharmacology course for Pharmacy students and the Advanced Molecular Pharmacology course for PhD students.

2. What are your research interests?

My interest and that of my team is to describe how different cells of the innate immune system, including neutrophils and dendritic cells, participate in the development of arterial hypertension and target tissue damage through both immune and non-immunological mechanisms.

3. What are you working on right now?

We are currently working on 2 projects, one associated with dietary excess fructose and its potential effect on the immune system and the other on how neutrophils may be modulating the natriuretic response during hypertension.

4. What do you hope to achieve in the field of hypertension over the next 5 years?

I would like to have a bigger, more diverse research group with different skills. To be able to expand our collaborative networks that will allow us to position ourselves as a recognized group in Hypertension research as well as to help establish networks among researchers in South America.

5. What challenges have you faced in your career to date?

Perhaps the biggest challenges were to be able to finish my training processes on time, which has delayed my career a little. However, it is something that has also allowed me to learn some concepts in greater depth. The current challenges lie in attracting new undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in physiology and hypertension, which is not so easy today.

6. Which of your publications are you proudest of and why (please include paper reference)

I would like to highlight a review we conducted in Dr. Amador’s laboratory during my first year as a postdoc. It was a review that we carried out during the pandemic, where we had to make several decisions along the way and it was on a topic that was little studied, such as the role of neutrophils in hypertension, and which eventually became the subject of my first grant financed by the national agency for research and development in Chile (ANID). I am very proud of the result obtained. PMID: 33198361

7. What is your favourite manuscript from a lab other than your own?

There are several, one more recent and given my interest in renal dendritic cells is from Barbara Schraml’s group (PMID: 34518373) that talks about a model of CD64+ cell depletion and the other is a classic from SD Crowley and TM Coffman group on the relevance of the renal AT₁R (PMID: 15841186)… a fantastic paper.

8. What are your passions outside of work?

I greatly enjoy listening to music particularly the blues as well as playing the guitar…I also enjoy outdoor sports such as football and swimming…. and of course, spending free time with my family.