Pablo Menéndez

Pablo Menéndez

Institut de Recerca contra la Leucèmia Josep Carreras

Life & Medical Sciences

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. 

Selected publications

- O Molina,..., P Menendez 2020, 'Impaired Condensin Complex and Aurora B kinase underlie mitotic and chromosomal defects in hyperdiploid B-cell ALL'. Blood, 136(3):313-327.

- C. Bueno, P Ballerini, I. Varela, P. Menendez*, R. Bashford-Rogers* 2020, 'Shared D-J rearrangements reveal cell of origin of TCF3-ZNF384 and PTPN11 mutations in monozygotic twins with concordant BCP-ALL'. Blood. 136: 1108-1111.

- T Velasco-Hernandez, ..... P. Menendez* 2020, 'Efficient elimination of primary B-ALL cells in vitro and in vivo by a novel 4-1BB-based CAR targeting a membrane distal CD22 epitope'. J ImmunoTherapy Cancer 8:e000896.

- Baroni, M....Menendez, P 2020, '41BB-based and CD28-based CD123-redirected T-cells ablate human normal hematopoiesis in vivo.', Journal For Immunotherapy Of Cancer, 8, 1. e000845.

- P. Petazzi, P. Menendez* 2020, 'A NEWral approach for HSCs production in vitro?', Blood, 136:2845-47

- SR Zanetti, P... P Menéndez* 2020, 'Bone marrow MSC from B-ALL patients highly immunosuppress T-cell responses but do not compromise CD19-CAR T-cell activity'. J ImmunoTherapy Cancer ', 8(2):e001419.

- M Martinez-Lage, ...., Pablo Menéndez, S Rodríguez-Perales 2020. 'In vivo CRISPR/Cas9 targeting of fusion oncogenes for selective elimination of cancer cells'. Nat Comm,11:5060.

- A Vidal,..., P Menendez,..., P Pérez-Galán 2020, 'Daratumumab displays anti-tumor activity in in vitro and in vivo models of B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma and improves response to standard chemo-immunotherapy regimens'. Haematologica.105;4:1032-1041.

- P Petazzi,..., P Menéndez* 2020. 'Robustness of catalytically-dead Cas9 activators in human pluripotent and mesenchymal stem cells'. Molecular Therapy Nucleid Acids, 20, 196 - 204.

- R Diaz de la Guardia,......P Menendez* 2020, 'Bone marrow clonogenic myeloid progenitors from NPM1-mutated AML patients do not harbor the NPM1 mutation: implication for the cell-of-origin of NPM1+ AML'. Genes,11, 1, 73.

Selected research activities

Founder and CSO of OneChain Immunotherapeutics, a IJC-based spin-off company created to advance and accelerate adoptive immunocellular therapies for acute leukemia.