Dr. Cheril Cecilia Tapia Rojas is a biochemist who earned her BSc and a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. After completing postdoctoral research funded by the ANILLO ACT1411 grant (Chile) at Universidad Autónoma de Chile, she joined Universidad San Sebastián in 2018 as Assistant Professor sponsored by the program that subsidizes installation in academia (PAI77170091), and secured a FONDECYT Initiation grant that same year.

She leads the Neurobiology of Aging Laboratory (NBA‑Lab) at the Centro Basal Ciencia & Vida. Her research focuses on synaptic mitochondrial dysfunction in the aging hippocampus, investigating how factors such as phosphorylated tau and reduced Lonp1 protease activity contribute to memory decline and impaired neuroenergetics. Her team employs mouse primary neuron cultures, organotypic slices, and aged mouse models (strains C57BL6 and SAMP8) to explore these mechanisms.

Dr. Tapia Rojas is actively involved in teaching and mentorship across undergraduate Biochemistry programs and graduate studies, including the PhD in Cell Biology and Biomedicine program and the PhD in Biotechnology and Bioentrepreneurship program at USS. She has more than 55 research publications and multiple funded projects, including FONDECYT grants, and she is recognized nationally and internationally for her contributions to understanding aging and mitochondrial biology.