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-bone marrow environment interactions and targeted therapies in Acute Myeloid Leukemia and therapy resistance. 3.- Adoptive T-cell-based CAR immunotherapy for B-cell, T-cell ALL, AML and bone sarcomas. 4.-Deciphering the intrinsic determinants and signaling pathways underlying hematopoietic from human pluripotent stem cells.
Selected publications
- Zanetti SR et al. 2022, 'A novel and efficient tandem CD19-and CD22-directed CAR for B cell ALL', Molecular Therapy, 30, 2, 550 - 563.
- Bueno C et al. 2022, 'Pre-leukemic CD34+CD19-CD22+ early B-cell progenitors might underlie phenotypic escape in patients treated with CD19-directed immunotherapies'. Blood.140(1), 38-44.
- Lopez-Millan B et al. 2022, 'The multi-kinase inhibitor EC-70124 is a promising candidate for the treatment of FLT3-ITD-positive acute myeloid leukemia'. Cancers 14, 6, 1593.
- Zhang YW et al. 2022, 'Hyaluronic acid-GPRC5C signalling promotes dormancy in haematopoietic stem cells', Nat Cell Biol, 24(79), 1038-1048.
- Ramos-Muntada M et al. 2022, 'Clonal heterogeneity and rates of specific chromosome gains are risk predictors in childhood high-hyperdiploid B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia', Molecular Oncology, 16(16), 28999-2919.
- Sánchez Martínez D et al. 2022, "Generation and proof-of-concept for allogeneic CD123 CAR-Delta One T (DOT) cells in AML". J ImmunoTher Cancer, 10(9);E005400.
- Petazzi P et al. 2022, 'ABO gene editing for the conversion of blood type A to universal type O in Rhnull donor-derived human-induced pluripotent stem cells', Clin Transl Med, 12(10):e1063.
- Jiménez-Reinoso A et al. 2022, 'Efficient preclinical treatment of cortical T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia with T lymphocytes secreting anti-CD1a T cell engagers', J Immunother Cancer, 10(12):e005333.
- Blanco B, Ramírez-Fernández Á, Bueno C, et al. 'Overcoming CAR CD19 down-modulation and leukemia escape with engineered T cells secreting anti-CD19 BiTEs', Cancer Immunol Res, 10(4), 498-511.
- Galindo-Campos MA, Lutfi N, Bonnin S, et al. 2022 'Differential functional roles for PARP-1 and PARP-2 in c-Myc-driven B cell lymphoma in mice'. Blood, 139(2), 228-239.
- Romecín P et al. 2002, "Robust In Vitro and In Vivo Immunosuppressive and Anti-inflammatory Properties of Inducible Caspase-9-mediated Apoptotic Mesenchymal Stromal/Stem Cells", Stem Cells Transl Med. 11, 1, 88 - 96.