Mara Dierssen received a medical degree from the School of Medicine of the University of Cantabria (Spain) in 1985. She was first exposed to research in Juan Jordá laboratory on the electrophysiology of the aplysia cervical ganglion and in Jesús Flórez laboratory at Cantabria University. Flórez was known for his work on the control of the respiratory activity, a research line in which Dr Dierssen could demonstrate the role of CCK-8 in the central respiratory control in her master Thesis. By graduation she was firmly interested in Neurosciences. After starting her neurobiological work in the difficult thicket of the central control of breathing using neurosurgical, pharmacological and microiontophoretic approaches, she worked on the involvement of L-type calcium channels in the action of morphine and earned her Ph.D. degree in neurobiology at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Cantabria in 1989. She took postdoctoral training in the laboratory directed by Albert Badía, at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain) from 1990-1993 where she also had teaching activity. During this period she visited the Department of Neuropathology in the Free University in Berlin, where she learned basic neuropathological techniques from Klaus Lueders, and she trained in biochemical and behavioral techniques, making contributions to the study of learning and memory and the degenerative process. She became interested in learning and memory alterations in cognitive diseases and the influence of environment in the degenerative process in brain. Thereafter, she served as assistant professor at the University of Cantabria (1993-1997) where she initiated her work in the behavioral and molecular analysis of the alterations in learning and memory storage involved in mental retardation that, ultimately, would be applicable to humans. Beginning in 1997, Dierssen held a researcher position at the Medical and Molecular Genetics Center-Institut de Recerca Oncológica (IRO), Barcelona (Spain), where she started a Neurobiology and Behavior Research Group until 2001. From 2001 until present, she is Group Leader of the Neurobehavioral Analysis Laboratory at the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona (Spain) and holds a professorship in the Ramón Llull University of Barcelona (1998-present). Her current work is devoted to functional genomics of mental retardation and neuropsychiatric disorders. She is interested in understanding the role of putative candidate genes for human complex genetic diseases that impair the structural elements connecting the neurons with consequences on brain cognitive systems. Her laboratory is investigating specific links between cognitive impairments and memory disorders in patients with Down syndrome using genetically engineered mouse models. Her second research line is directed to the study of neuropsychiatric disorders (panic disorder, obssesive-compulsive disorders).