Our research interest is focused on the study of Cell Division and Rare Diseases. We investigate the fundamental mechanisms that control chromosome segregation and mitotic progression during the cell cycle. To study the mechanisms governing mitosis regulation we use mostly the budding yeast as a model organism.

The group studies the genetic mechanisms that control maize resistance to stresses, kernel quality and production in order to optimize the improvement of maize for food (animal and human) and industrial uses. Maize biodiversity will be used to make agriculture more sustainable. The team is made up of three officials (1 Research Professor and 2 Scientific Researchers), an Ad Honorem Research Professor and a staff member (Research Assistant), one Research Assistant hired indefinitely by court ruling, three Technicians and one Graduated hired with research funds and an FPI.

We are interested in understanding how species proliferate and change over time. We use molecular tools and fieldwork approaches to investigate evolutionary and ecological patterns and processes at both the individual and population level. Much of this work is focused on island birds (using extinct and extant taxa) where I investigate the causes and consequences of adaptive (and non-adaptive) genetic variation to understand the mechanisms driving avian radiations.

Virus variability is one of the main obstacles for the effective prevention and treatment of viral diseases. The main objective of our laboratory is to understand viral dynamics of RNA viruses, based on deep sequencing data of in vivo and ex vivo viral populations. We aim at designing new antiviral strategies capable of counteracting virus adaptability which is responsible of treatment and vaccination failures.

This research group is focused in the replicative sequences that have colonised and multiply within the human genome, known as mobile genetic elements (MGEs) or mobile DNA. MGEs’ replicative activity led to an accumulation of copies that accounts for ~50% of the human genome. They cause insertional mutagenesis, leading to an increase of genetic diversity and occasionally responsible of spontaneous genetic disease and cancer. Epigenetic silencing is known to minimise their deleterious impact, although the mechanism responsible for driving this silencing to active MGEs is largely unknown.

Our research team focuses on the study of the tissue remodelling that occurs during the development, progression and resolution of chronic diseases, with a special emphasis on fibrosis and cancer. Tissue remodelling involves both the cellular components of the tissue and the extracellular matrix (ECM) in a complex interplay where both send signals to each other, triggering important biological events such as cell death/proliferation, ECM synthesis/degradation, regeneration and inflammation among others.

Since their appearance on earth, plants have naturally evolved mechanisms to thrive in every possible ecosystem. Some of the most interesting cases of plant adaptation have occurred during domestication, where humans strongly selected for characteristics of agricultural interest. Understanding the molecular basis of these adaptive mechanisms is one of the mayor quests in modern biology and the goal of the Adaptive Genomics and Genetics group.

Our group is interested in finding out how post-translational modifications of proteins contribute both to cell-autonomous transformation and permissive tumour micro-environments in response to hormonal stress or obesity, and its influence on aberrant proliferation, DNA damage response or aberrant migration and angiogenesis processes, using cellular models and mice models of mammary glands development.

The study of the relationship between the composition, structure and functionality of relevant biocolloids and nanoparticles in biology, pharmacy and food science. In our laboratory we have instruments sensitive to surfaces such as the dissipation quartz microbalance, spectroscopic ellipsometry, atomic force microscope, Langmuir balance, surface plasmonic resonance and fluorescence microscopy. We are regular users of the most important European large-scale facilities for neutron scattering and X-rays such as ILL, ISIS, FRM2, DESY, MaxIV and also the Australian ANSTO facility.