Senena Corbalan

Senena Corbalán is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UMU, and her research field covers membrane-interacting proteins. Throughout her career, she has studied the lipid regulation of membrane proteins involved in essential processes in the cell, such as ion fluxes, proliferation, migration, and signal integration. These proteins include Ca2+-ATPase, guanine nucleotide exchange factor SOS, Ras protein, protein kinase C, insulin receptor, intermediate conductance potassium channels, rabphilin 3A, SNAP-25, synaptotagmin and actin-fascin interactions. In recent years, her group has been studying the role of these proteins in diseases such as cancer and neurodegeneration. She has authored many publications in this field, as seen in her ORCID profile.

She served as Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Murcia from March 2022 to January 2026, having previously held the position of Vice-Rector for Internationalisation from April 2018 to January 2020. Between January 2020 and February 2022, she assumed the combined role of Vice-Rector for Research and Internationalisation. In 2021, she led the application process for the University of Murcia's accession to the European University Alliance EUniWell, subsequently serving as a member of its Steering Board until February 2025. From September 2020 to January 2026, she was a member of the Executive Committee of the National Conference of Rectors CRUE R&D&I. Senena additionally served as the University of Murcia's representative within the Member States group responsible for drafting the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment, and represented the institution within the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA). In this latter capacity, she also represented CRUE on CoARA's working group and in the coordination of the Spanish National Chapter, a role she held until January 2026. She currently remains a member of the European University Association's Research and Innovation Steering Group, and serves as a member of the Spanish Research Ethics Committee.