Born in Madrid in 1964. Studied Biological Sciences at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM, 1987), where he also obtained his PhD (1991; Molecular Biology and Biochemistry), in the field of plant molecular virology. Postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Elliot Meyerowitz, at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), studying Arabidopsis flower development. Joined a start-up company in the field of plant functional genomics (Mendel Biotechnology, Hayward, CA), in 1998, studying Arabidopsis transcription factors. In 2002, joined Caltech as Director of the Millard and Muriel Jacobs Genetics and Genomics Laboratory, continuing studies on genome-wide analyses of gene expression, gene expression in Arabidopsis flower development, microRNAs, and microarray technology. Since 2007, ICREA Research Professor at the Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), Barcelona. Director of CRAG from 2013 to 2022.

We study transcriptional regulation and development, using Arabidopsis thaliana as a model system. In particular, studies on the floral transition and flower development, genomic analyses of transcription factors, and global gene expression analyses. The focus of the laboratory is the study at a global level of some of gene regulatory networks that control flower development in Arabidopsis. More recently, we have concentrated our efforts on the chronology of protein expression throughout early Arabidopsis flower development and its correlation to unbiased transcript expression data, and the definition and characterization of the Arabidopsis 'non-conventional' peptidome (sORF-encoded peptides and hidden coding sequences in the Arabidopsis genome), and of the possible roles of these small proteins in flower development and other processes.