Dr. Irma (Lisa) Cisneros received her Ph.D. from the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, Texas in 2015. After completion of a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Dr. Cisneros was recruited as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at UTMB. She is a member of the Center for Addiction Research, Institute for Human Infections and Immunity and Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases. She also is Co-Director for the NeuroInfectious Disease Initiative at UTMB.
The overarching goal of the Cisneros Lab is to understand the mechanisms dictating interactions between the immune system and nervous system during substance use disorders and neuroinfectious diseases. A particular interest is on immunocompetent cells of the CNS, including astrocytes and microglia, and their innate immune responses, both inflammatory and antiviral during substance use disorders and CNS viral infections. Using in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro models, we focus on neuroimmune interactions in addiction and viral-mediated neurodegeneration.