Group Members: Mª José Motilva Casado: Research Scientist, CSIC (Responsible for Polyphenols) Mar Vilanova de la Torre: Distinguished Researcher, CSIC (Responsible for Volatiles area) Silvia Yuste: Postdoctoral researcher Bianca Souza: Researcher Juana I.

We focus in assessing the effect of forest management on forest system dynamics, the development of forest models and different actions linked to mitigation and adaption of forests to climate change.

Our research line is focused on elucidating the molecular mechanisms involved in the development of giant cell arteritis. Specifically, the main objective of our research group is to determine the genetic and epigenetic contribution to the pathogenesis of this disease by using genomic (genome-wide association studies, GWAS), epigenomic (DNA methylation and chromatin conformation analysis by ATAC-seq and ChIP-seq) and transcriptomic (RNA sequencing and single-cell RNA sequencing) approaches in cell types with a relevant role in giant cell arteritis.

The Castaño group is devoted to the advancement of the numerica methods for cryo electron tomography, including all aspects of the pipeline: alignment, reconstruction, particle location, subtomogram averaging and classification. This includes exploring protocols for cooperative use of further imaging techniques from Structural and Cellular biology (as superresolution light microscopy) towards the integration of information on multiple scales in space and time, aiming at the completion of mechanistic studies of key life processes. The group is commited to the production of robust, user-friendl

Our research explores the interface between chemical biology, medicinal chemistry and supramolecular chemistry. We use modern analytical techniques to study dynamic combinatorial libraries: dynamic networks of interchanging chemical species. We apply these dynamic networks as a hit-identification tool in drug discovery to gain insight into diseases’ etiology and study the properties derived from the molecular networks in the emerging field of systems chemistry to mimic functions encountered in Nature.

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.