Department: Inmunología, Oftalmología y ORL

Faculty: Óptica y Optometría

Centre/Institute: Instituto de Investigaciones Oftalmológicas Ramón Castroviejo

Area: Ophthalmology

Research group: Grupo de investigación básica en ciencias de la visión del IIORC

Email: es.garcia@ucm.es

Doctor by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid with the thesis Detección precoz de demencia tipo alzheimer mediante pruebas oftalmológicas psicofísicas y tomografía de coherencia óptica como pruebas diagnósticas complementarias 2019. Supervised by Dr. Rosa de Hoz Montañana, Dr. José M. Ramírez Sebastian, Dr. Pedro Gil Gregorio.

Dr. Elena Salobrar-García holds a Diploma (2004) and a Bachelor's degree (2013) in Optics and Optometry from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). She has completed two Master's degrees: one in Clinical Optometry (a two-year program) at the private institution Centro Boston-Continuing Education (2007), and another in Optics, Optometry, and Vision (2009) with 120 credits from UCM. In 2019, she earned her Doctorate in Vision Sciences from UCM, graduating with honors ("Cum Laude"). Her doctoral thesis received the Extraordinary Doctoral Award (Dean's Award) in Medicine for the 2018-2019 academic year and the 2020 Doctorate Award in Basic Medical Sciences from the Royal National Academy of Medicine of Spain. Additionally, her doctoral work received the Prize the Santiago Grisolía in Doctoral Thesis. Dr. Salobrar-García has furthered her education through various international stays. In 2007, she studied at the New England College of Optometry in Boston, USA. In 2011, she enjoyed an Erasmus Scholarship for a Master's program at the University of Latvia in Riga. She also conducted research at the Ophthalmological Research Unit "Santiago Grisolía" at Dr. Peset Hospital in Valencia (2013), received a government-funded stay at the Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Life Science (IBILI) at the University of Coimbra in Portugal (2017), and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, USA (2024). As an accredited Associate Professor of Health Sciences, she has been associated with UCM since 2012. Her roles have included predoctoral research positions (2012-2013), FPU Predoctoral Fellow (2014-2019), and postdoctoral research positions (2019-2020). Dr. Salobrar García Martín actively contributes to teaching in both the Medicine and Optometry degree programs. At the postgraduate level, she teaches in the Master's program in Vision Sciences Research (Interuniversity Master's) and the Master's program in Hospital Optometry, both at UCM. She has also served as an Erasmus Lecturer at the University of Latvia. Her research interests focus on neurodegenerative pathology and its detection through vision and retinal analysis, with inflammation and subsequent degeneration as common underlying factors. She is a member of the Basic Vision Sciences Research Group at the IIORC (UCM-GR17-920105). Since 2021, she has been a Visiting Scientist at the National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC). Dr. Salobrar García Martín is affiliated with the San Carlos Health Research Institute (IdISSC) and serves on the Young Researchers Committee of the Society for Research in Retina and Vision (SIREV). She has co-authored 50 articles in high-impact journals indexed in JCR and contributed to 14 book chapters. Her research has been supported by participation in 8 competitive research projects. Dr. Salobrar-García has received awards for outstanding publications in her field and has been recognized for her presentations at international conferences. She is an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Optometry and serves as a referee for high-impact scientific journals in her area of study. Additionally, she is a member of 5 scientific societies.