Gabriela Suarez-Mier, DVM, DACVIM

Email: gsuarezm@stanford.edu

Professional Education and Training:

  • National Autonomous University of Mexico- Veterinary Medicine- 2002
  • Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center- Rotating Internship- 2004
  • University of Florida, School of Veterinary Medicine- Residency in Large Animal Internal Medicine- 2007
  • Stanford University- PhD Candidate in the Neuroscience Program

About me:
I grew up in Mexico City, but have spent a significant part of my life (about a third) living in the US. After finishing Veterinary school in Mexico, during my internship, I became interested in internal medicine and critical care of horses. During my residency I took care of a diverse variety of large animals with different medical disorders: from septic foals and calves and goats with respiratory problems to horses with severe neurologic disorders to llamas with heat stress. The neurologic cases fascinated me the most. I wanted to understand the underlying mechanisms of these diseases, which is why  I decided to pursue a PhD in Neuroscience at Stanford. 

Research:
I am interested in understanding the mechanisms of neuroimmune communication and the role of peripheral glia in this interaction. During severe illness, stimulation of the autonomic nervous system often leads to profound immune suppression and subsequent infection. Pneumonia is the most common type of infection in the critical care setting, and it predisposes to worse outcome and increased mortality. I am in the process of determining whether glial cells in the lung respond to signals from the central nervous system to modulate the local inflammatory response.