Early Career Investigators Coordinator.
Address info: Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid (Spain)
I graduated in the Universidad Complutense Madrid (UCM) and started my predoctoral stage as a student-collaborator in Dr. Rosa Maria Arahuetes’s lab, granted with a Fellowship from the Regional Government of Madrid. During this period, I began a profitable collaboration with Dr. Paloma Maganto, at the Service of Experimental Surgery in Puerta de Hierro Hospital. I focused his MSc thesis on the expression of bilirubin UDP-glucuronosyl transferase throughout fetal development. With the financial support of a predoctoral fellowship of the Spanish FISS (ISCIII), I then studied hepatocyte transplantation as an alternative to orthotopic liver transplant in liver-based inborn errors of metabolism, such as the Crigler-Najjar syndrome type I. The doctoral thesis, outstanding cum laude, was titled “Intrasplenic transplantation of hepatocytes in an experimental model of type I Crigler-Najjar syndrome”. My postdoctoral experience began at Trinity College Dublin in Anatomy and Physiology under the Supervision of Prof. Gabrielle McKee (2004-2006). Later, I joined Dr. Natalia Nieto’s lab, in the Division of Liver Diseases at Mount Sinai School of Medicine as a
postdoctoral fellow first and then as a recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education (Beca MEC/Fulbright), under the auspices of Prof. Scott Friedman. Using his expertise in primary hepatocyte isolation (both fetal and adult), experimentally approached the study of the pathophysiology of alcohol-induced liver fibrosis (2006-2009). In 2009, I joined the research group headed by Prof. Trautwein (University Hospital RWTH Aachen) who is an international expert on the functional relevance of celltype specific signaling pathways in animal models of liver injury and where I became Research Associate (2009-2016). In 2016, I obtained a Ramon y Cajal Fellowship and i n February 2022, I was appointed Catedrático de Inmunología (Full Professor) in the Department of Immunology, Ophthalmology and ENT at the Complutense University School of Medicine. During this time, I have been involved in Teaching activities in the Department (Immunology, Cancer Immunotherapy, Coordination of the Cancer Itinerary in the Translational Medicine Master, Master of Immunology, and the design of new subjects for both the degree of Medicine and the Master of Immunology). Moreover, I have supervised TFG, TFM and over 15 doctoral theses 7 of them in the last 4 years at UCM). I participate in national (ISCIII/MICINN/ANEP) and international evaluation procedures (ANR-France, DFG-Germany, MRC-UK, Czech Science Foundation). I belong to the Editorial Board of Gut, Journal of Hepatology, World Journal of Gastroenterology, Livers, European Journal of Anatomy and Explorative Digestive Diseases and I am a member of different scientific societies including the COST Action CA18122 EUROCHOLANGIO-NET (2019-2023), Cost Action CA11712 ProEURO DILI Registry (2018-2022) in which I am theShort Term Scientific Missions (STSM) Coordinator, Core Group member and Grant Awarding Coordinator. Moreover, I am a member of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) and the International Society for Hepatic Sinusoidal Research (ISHSR).
During my career, I have received relevant Honors and Awards including the ERAB Best Publication Award (2020), International Liver Scholar Award, Gilead (2018-2020), German Liver Foundation Award (2016), Ramon y Cajal Felloswhip (2016-2022), Torres Quevedo Fellowship (2015, declined), Postdoctoral Fellowship of the New York Center for Systems Biology (2008), Liver Scholar Award (2008), Postdoctoral Fellowship, MEC (2006-2018) and the Predoctoral Fellowship, Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (1997-2000).