Dr. rer. nat Maria Andres-Alonso obtained her degree in Biology at the University of Navarre, Spain. After obtaining her master´s degree in Neuroscience at University College London, UK, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Anna Fejtova and Dr. Eckart Gundelfinger the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN) where she performed her doctoral studies within a Marie Curie ITN programme coordinated by Dr. Michael Kreutz. She is currently working as a senior post-doctoral researcher in the research group Neuroplasticity leaded by Dr. Michael Kreutz at LIN. Her research interests are directed towards understanding the role degradative organelles at synaptic sites and function, and the contribution of microsecretory systems in maintaining proteostasis of synaptic membrane proteins.