Dr Gondin is an early-career researcher (PhD May 2019) at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences with interest in Drug Discovery and Structural Biology of G protein-coupled receptors. Her research utilises in vitro display platforms for the development of single-domain antibodies (nanobodies). Also interested in understanding how receptor localisation within subcellular compartments such as endosomes, nucleus and Golgi contributes to signalling and whether it can be targeted with novel drug delivery strategies. 

Arisbel Batista Gondin completed a joint PhD program in GPCR Molecular Pharmacology and Drug Discovery (2014-2018) under the supervision of Dr Meritxell Canals, Dr Michelle Halls (Monash University) and Dr Stephen Briddon (The University of Nottingham, UK). The focus of her PhD was to characterise the molecular mechanisms underlying mu-opioid receptor activation and led to 6 published research articles. Her PhD research entailed the quantitative assessment of receptor signalling and trafficking using fluorescent and luminescent technologies, as well as cutting-edge single molecule imaging techniques and provided irrefutable evidence showing that synthetic forms of the endogenous opioids cause very distinct phosphorylation, receptor regulation and movement within the plasma membrane, compared to the prototypical analgesic, morphine. This challenges current thinking in the field which links different therapeutic profiles to the differential ability of ligands to recruit downstream signalling mediators. Moreover, her latest published work provides evidence that the improved therapeutic window of new generation opioid drugs, widely publicised to be biased ligands, is actually due to weak partial agonist activity. Her PhD work was selected several times to present at leading international conferences in GPCR pharmacology including BPS UK 2016, GRC Italy 2017, GPCR workshop USA 2017, GPCR pharmacology Denmark 2018 and ASCEPT-PAGANZ New Zealand 2019.

Dr Gondin is currently undertaking postdoctoral training under the supervision of Dr David Thal and Dr Nicholas Veldhuis.