Gerardo Jiménez graduated in biology from the Universitat de Barcelona in 1988. He performed his doctoral studies at the Leukaemia Research Fund in London and at the Department of Biochemistry of the Universitat de Barcelona, working on the structure and regulation of mammalian globin gene loci. After receiving his PhD degree in 1993, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Cancer Research UK, both in Oxford and in London. Since then, his research interests have focused on the transcriptional and cell signaling mechanisms controlling gene expression, mainly using Drosophila as a model system. After his postdoctoral training, he moved to the Institut de Biologia Molecular de Barcelona-CSIC, where he is principal investigator since 2002. He joined ICREA in 2003.

Research interests

During animal development, the differentiation of cells, tissues and organs is tightly regulated through specific gene expression programs. Our group is particularly interested in studying the transcriptional and cell signaling mechanisms responsible for this control. Using Drosophila as a model system, we have been dissecting the activities of repressor and co-repressor factors, as well as the responses induced by receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) pathways during pattern formation and differentiation. One emerging theme has been the identification of the Capicua transcriptional repressor as a general sensor targeted by multiple RTK-initiated signals. Because the molecules and pathways that we study are conserved in evolution, our results have direct implications for human biology and disease.