Secondment
Short Presentation
I am interested in studying the molecular and signal transduction mechanisms of G-protein coupled receptors that modulate renal and bone physiopathology. My research career is focused on the parathyroid hormone (PTH) receptor (PTHR) and associated proteins aiming to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that regulate processes of kidney fibrosis and bone osteoporosis/aging and to develop new therapeutic approaches for translational medicine applications. I graduated in Biological Sciences at the Complutense Universtity of Madrid in 2003. During my degree I collaborated with Dr. Moreno Díaz de la Espina from the CIB (CSIC) on the analysis of nuclear organization and functions, and obtained a collaboration grant in the Department of Animal Physiology (Complutense Universtity of Madrid). In 2003 I joined Dr. Esbrit research group at Jiménez Díaz Foundation and focused my thesis on the molecular mechanisms triggered by PTHR signaling in acute and chronic kidney disease. These studies allowed us to discover the key role of a protein that interacts with the PTHR, parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP), in promoting renal fibrosis and epithelial mesenchymal transition and publish in the top journals in the field. This work opened the path to the development of novel renal therapies and was awarded with the Renal Basic Research award by the Iñigo Alvarez de Toledo Renal Foundation in 2006. I received the PhD in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biomedicine (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid) in 2008 and my thesis research was granted with the Extraordinary Thesis Award by the Jiménez Díaz Foundation in 2009. After completing my PhD I joined Dr. Friedman’s laboratory in the Pharmacology and Chemical Biology Department at the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, USA) as a postdoctoral associate. In Pittsburgh I specialized in state-of-the art fluorescence microscopy techniques of live cell imaging including Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET), Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF), Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP)… Using these techniques we discovered a new naturally occurring isoform of PTHR (?e14-PTHR) that inhibits trafficking and signaling of PTHR. Also, we described PTHRdependent cAMP production in intracellular compartments. This new concept published in Nature Chemical Biology questions the traditional knowledge based on that cAMP production triggered by receptors originates exclusively at the cell membrane. Recently I wrote a review in Pharmacological Reviews about scaffold proteins that interact with PTHR summarizing much of the research I developed at the University of Pittsburgh during almost 4 years. In 2012 I was appointed Adjunct Research Instructor in Pharmacology and Chemical Biology in the School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh up to the present. Since 2012 I worked at Jimenez Diaz Foundation with a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral appointment. With the help of my co-workers and a graduate student that I supervised under the Seneca program, I implemented Fluorescence Microscopy and Live Cell Imaging Techniques to different lines of research developed in Fundación Jiménez Díaz including the study of PTHR signaling in bone osteoporosis and aging. In addition, I analyzed biopolymers coated with PTHRactivating peptides for bone implanting and assessed their impact on skeletal regeneration mechanisms. Currently I am an associate research professor in San Pablo CEU University.
Research Fields
Research areas (short description)
Academic training