Elena Blanco-Suárez is assistant professor of neurobiology at San Diego State University. Her laboratory studies astrocyte-mediated mechanisms of plasticity in health and disease, with a particular focus on recovery after stroke.
Blanco-Suárez is the editor of the book “Astrocyte-Neuron Interactions in Health and Disease.” She is deeply engaged in science communication and outreach, for which she received the Next Generation Award by the Society for Neuroscience and was named a finalist for the AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science. She also writes about neuroscience research and career development on her blog.
She earned her B.Sc. in biology at the Universidad de Oviedo and her M.Sc. in biochemistry, molecular biology and biomedicine at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She completed her Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Bristol, followed by postdoctoral training at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. She established her independent research program in 2020 at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and returned to Southern California in 2025 to join the faculty at San Diego State University.
