Rodríguez Cairo, Esteban Martin.

• Hypothalamo-hypophyseal system, brain peptides and cerebrospinal fluid. Main contribution: Signal molecules either specifically transported from blood to CSF or secreted into the CSF by a series of periventricular structures, use the CSF to reach their targets in the brain, allowing a cross talk between brain regions located beyond the blood-brain-barrier, thus keeping the brain milieu private.
• Unfolding the mystery of the subcommissural organ (SCO). Main contribution: identification and purification of the proteins secreted by the SCO into the CSF and partially disclosure of the function of the SCO, leading to the concept that the SCO is essential for a normal flow of CSF through the aqueduct, and that an abnormal SCO lead to hydrocephalus.
• Cell and molecular mechanisms triggering foetal onset hydrocephalus. Main contribution: a primary pathology of the junction complexes of the neural stem cells forming the germinal zone of the embryonic brain leads to two inseparable phenomena, hydrocephalus and abnormal neurogenesis, thus explaining the inborn neurological impairment of children born with hydrocephalus, a defect not solved by derivative surgery.
• On-going research: Grafting of normal neural stem cells into the CSF of mutant rats with hereditary congenital hydrocephalus aiming to abort the cascade of events leading to hydrocephalus and abnormal neurogenesis.