Manuel is ICREA Research Professor at Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (IBEC). Manuel is a bioengineer working on advanced biomaterials for cell and tissue engineering, to develop in vitro models and as tools for mechanobiology. His group engineer materials to provide control of the local cellular microenvironment, both biochemically and biophysically. Manuel holds an ERC AdG to develop the next generation of viscoelastic materials to understand this important property of the extracellular matrix in the context of tissue regeneration. Manuel was Professor of Applied Physics in Valencia until his relocation to Glasgow in 2013 as Chair of Biomedical Engineering. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy for Arts and Sciences.

I work on material-based strategies for mechanobiology, tissue regeneration and developing in vitro 3D models to understand physiology, disease and as platforms for drug testing.Together with key local and international collaborators, my group addresses a broad range of topics, including the design of advanced biomaterials, including control of (viscoelastic) mechanical properties and functionalisation with growth factors, their interactions with the extracellular matrix and strategies that underpin cell engineering. I develop fundamental research that it is then pushed to clinical translation.