Born in Avilés, Asturias, in 1974. Biochemist by University of Salamanca (1997) and PhD in Medicine (Hematology) by the same University in 2002, under the supervision of Prof. Alberto Orfao and Prof. Jesus San Miguel. Postdoctoral training in stem cell biology (Mick Bhatia Laboratory, London, ON, Canada; 2002-2005) and in childhood leukemia (Mel Greaves Laboratory, London, UK; 2005-2007). In 2007, I was appointed Director of the Andalusian Stem Cell Bank, and was leading my own lab at CIBM (Granada, Spain) until July 2011 when I moved to GENyO (Granada, Spain) as Principal Invesigator. In June 2013 I was appointed ICREA Research Professor and Research Director of The Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute-Campus Clínic, Barcelona, Spain.

Research interests

1.-Understanding the pathogenesis and cellular origin of MLL-rearranged and MLL-germline Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in children.  2.-Leukemic cell-niche environment interactions and targeted therapies in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. A role for BM-stroma in therapy resistance 3.-Deciphering the intrinsic determinants and signaling pathways underlying hematopoietic from human pluripotent stem cells. 4.- Adoptive T-cell-based CAR immunotherapy for B-cell, T-cell ALL and AML.