Ángel Raya

Ángel Raya

Centre de Medicina Regenerativa de Barcelona

Life & Medical Sciences

Ángel Raya is an ICREA Research Professor at the Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona (CMRB). He obtained his MD in 1990 from the University of Valencia, Spain and a PhD degree from the same university in 1995 for studies carried out at the Department of Physiology and at the Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. He pursued postdoctoral training at the Instituto de Investigaciones Citológicas (currently, Centro de Investigación Príncipe Felipe) in Valencia, from 1995-2000. He then was a Research Associate (2000-2004) and a Senior Research Associate (2004-2006) in the Gene Expression Laboratory of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA. He returned to Spain in 2006 and was the Scientific Coordinator at the CMRB until 2009, when he joined the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) as Group Leader of the Control of Stem Cell Potency group. In 2014 he was appointed Director at CMRB.


Research interests

Our research work aims to understand the tissue, cellular and molecular mechanisms that determine the regenerative response in certain species of vertebrates, as well as the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that control cellular reprogramming. This phenomenon provides a link between the traditional study of epimorphic regeneration and the induced pluripotency strategies of regenerative medicine.

Selected publications

– Cai R et al. 2019, ‘Enhancing glycolysis attenuates Parkinson’s disease progression in models and clinical databases’. J Clin Invest 129: 4539-49.

– Calatayud C et al. 2019 ‘CRISPR/Cas9-mediated generation of a tyrosine hydroxylase reporter iPSC line for live imaging and isolation of dopaminergic neurons’. Sci Rep 9:6811.

– Carrió M et al. 2019, ‘Reprogramming captures the genetic and tumorigenic properties of Neurofibromatosis Type 1 plexiform neurofibromas’. Stem Cell Rep 12: 411-26.

– Castaño J et al. 2019, ‘GATA2 promotes hematopoietic development and represses cardiac differentiation of human mesoderm’. Stem Cell Rep 13:515-29.

– Cutrale F et al. 2019, ‘Using enhanced number and brightness to measure protein oligomerization dynamics in live cells’. Nat Protoc 14: 616-38.

– di Domenico A et al. 2019, ‘Patient-specific iPSC-derived astrocytes contribute to non-cell autonomous neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease’. Stem Cell Rep 12: 213-29.

– Fernández-Santiago R et al. 2019, ‘Whole-genome DNA hyper-methylation in iPSC-derived dopaminergic neurons from Parkinson’s disease patients’. Clin Epigenetics 11:108.

– Garcia-Puig A et al. 2019, ‘Proteomics analysis of extracellular matrix remodeling during zebrafish heart regeneration’. Mol Cell Proteomics 18:1745-55.

– Saludas L et al. 2019, ‘Long-term engraftment of human cardiomyocytes combined with biodegradable microparticles induces heart repair’, J Pharmacol Exp Ther 370:761-71.

– Uroz M et al. 2019, ‘Traction forces at the cytokinetic ring regulate cell division and polyploidy in the migrating zebrafish epicardium’. Nat Mater 18:1015-23.

– Valls-Margarit M et al. 2019, ‘Engineered macroscale cardiac constructs elicit human myocardial tissue-like functionality’. Stem Cell Rep 13:207-20.

Selected research activities

Co-organizer

ESGCT Annual Congress, Barcelona, Nov

Invited speaker

Aga Khan/NOVA Symposium, Lisbon, Jun

CIBER-BBN Annual Conference, Tarragona, Oct

Jornada Anual FVEA, Valencia, Nov

Jornades d’Edició Genètica al IEC, Dec