MARTINEZ RIZO, ABRIL BERNARDETTE

Abril Bernardette Martínez Rizo, PhD, is a Translational Immunologist and International Scientific Evaluator with over 16 years of experience in biomedical research. She earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences (Immunology) from the University of Guadalajara and currently holds a National Postdoctoral Fellowship (SECIHTI) at the Autonomous University of Yucatán (UADY), Mexico. Her research focuses on the immunomodulatory potential of natural bioactive compounds, particularly those derived from medicinal fungi, to better understand and therapeutically modulate chronic inflammatory and cancer-associated pathways.

Her research integrates molecular immunology, inflammation biology, immunopharmacology, and redox biology to investigate the molecular mechanisms that regulate immune responses during chronic inflammatory diseases and cancer. Her work has evolved from studies on TGF-β/SMAD-mediated fibrosis and tissue remodeling to broader investigations of immune regulation, macrophage plasticity, inflammatory signaling, and the molecular pathways that determine the transition from adaptive immune responses to chronic pathological inflammation.

She has authored more than 20 peer-reviewed JCR-indexed publications (h-index: 10; i10-index: 10), three book chapters, and has collaborated with 91 co-authors across 41 institutions. She serves as an International Scientific Evaluator for the OEI (FORCYT Programme) and SENACYT (Panama), and as an Accredited Evaluator for CONAHCYT/SECIHTI (Mexico), having assessed more than 40 competitive research proposals and postgraduate programmes. She is a member of the National System of Researchers (SNII, Level I) and has received the Nayarit State Science and Technology Award (2016) and the Pedro Sarquis Merrewe Award for Best Doctoral Thesis (2011).

ORCID: 0000-0002-8381-3730 | Scopus: 56013602200