Beatriz Rico

Beatriz Rico is a professor of developmental neurobiology at King's College London. Her research focuses on neural circuit development.

Following her time in Spain, she completed her postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco under her supervisor Louis Reichardt.

Principal investigator This GABAergic synapse depiction is showing the production, release, action and degradation of GABA. Beatriz then formed her own lab focusing specifically on mammalian cortical networks and neurodevelopment disorders. Rico started as a Principal Investigator at the Neuroscience Institute in Alicante, Spain. Her team found a discovered a link between the protein called Brevican and short-term spatial memory. In 2019, the Rico Lab uncovered a developmental mechanism for specification of inhibitory connections within the brain. Rico worked with Emilia Favuzzi and Ruben Deogracias, who were lead authors of the Science article on this discovery.

Awards and honors

In 2010, Rico's work received recognition from the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). Additionally, she was awarded Consolidator and Advanced grants by the European Research Council for her project 'Assembly and plasticity of inhibitory cortical networks by early learning experience'. This grant was awarded to Rico for research into how early sensory experiences affect efficiency of cortical networks and, ultimately behavior. and she was granted lifelong membership to EMBO's community of scientists in 2021.