Laura Grau
Laura Grau was born in Reus, Tarragona (Spain). She graduated in Biology in 2002 at the Universidad de Barcelona and obtained her PhD in 2007 at the Cell Biology, Physiology and Inmunology Dept., at the Medical School of the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, supervised by Dr. Escrich. In October 2008 she moved to Madrid to carry out her postdoct in the Dept. Molecular Pathology of the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO), supervised by Dr. Sánchez-Carbayo. In December 2011 she started working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas Alberto Sols (CSIC), under the supervision of Dr. Villalobo. In June 2012 she joined the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC), where she currently forms part of the Research Office as a Department manager, with direct involvement in the preparation and application of national and international scientific proposals, periodic reports, personnel recruitment and logistics supervision.
Laura Conejero
Laura Conejero graduated in Biology at the Universidad Complutense (Madrid). She obtained her PhD in 2006 (Universidad Complutense) working on the development of a murine model of allergic asthma to olive pollen proteins and testing the role of CpG as potential therapeutic and prophylactic interventions in this physiological model. During her postdoctoral research at the LSHTM (2008-2013, London, UK), she was focused on the complex interplay between host-pathogen interactions during chronic melioidosis, studying lung immune responses to bacterial infections. In 2013, Laura moved to CNIC (Madrid, Spain), where she was awarded a RESPIRE2 fellowship (Marie-Curie ERS COFUND) to carry out a project aimed at evaluating the role of different subsets of dendritic cells in asthma. Since July 2017 she is working in the medical department at Inmunotek (Alcalá de Henares, Madrid), where she is involved in preclinical and clinical studies focused on immunotherapy, including bacterial vaccines and allergy.
Guadalupe Sabio
Guadalupe Sabio graduated from the School of Veterinary Medicine at the Universidad de Extremadura in 2000. Her PhD, under the direction of Dr. Ana Cuenda, was conducted both at the Universidad de Extremadura and at the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit in Dundee (UK). Her thesis work demonstrated the redundant function of p38-gamma and p38-delta, and showed that both kinases can phosphorylate SAP97 and SAP90. For her postdoc, Guadalupe moved to the University of Massachusetts Medical School to work with Dr. Roger Davis. Her work focused on the tissue-specific roles of JNK1, using mice with conditional deletion of JNK1 in different tissues. Through this work she made important contributions to the understanding of the tissue-specific roles of JNK1 and its implication in the pathogenesis of type II diabetes. Dr. Sabio returned to Spain in 2009 with a Ramón y Cajal contract to study diseases associated with obesity (diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer). She joined the CNIC in 2011 where she leads the Stress kinases in Diabetes, Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease laboratory.
Pilar Martín
Pilar Martín graduated in Biology at the Universidad Complutense (Madrid, 1996) and obtained her PhD under the supervision of Dr. Carlos Ardavín at the Universidad Complutense (Madrid, 2001) and in collaboration with Dr. Hans Acha-Orbea at Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (Laussane Switzerland). Her work focused on characterizing the different subpopulations of Denditric Cells (DCs) in lymphoid organs. During this period, she made relevant contributions, such as the characterization of a new subtype with tolerogenic potential (murine Plasmacytoid DCs), that were published in different international and high-impact publications. Then Dr. Martín, as a postdoctoral fellow at the Centro de Biología Molecular (CSIC), worked on the function of atypical PKCs in the NFκB pathway in the immune system. In 2007, with a Ramón y Cajal position, she joined the CNIC. Since 2012, Dr.Martín is Assistant Professor at CNIC where she leads the Regulatory Molecules of Inflammatory Processes laboratory, which studies the role of Th17, Regulatory T cells (Tregs) and microRNAs in the development of autoimmunity and cardiomyopathies in mice and human.
Juan José Infante
Dr. Juan José Infante graduated as PhD in Sciences -Molecular Biology and Microbiology- at the University of Cádiz in 2002. He completed his academic background with a 5-year position as senior scientist in the Department of Biochemistry of the University of Washington (Seattle, USA). After that, he joined the private biotechnology sector in 2007 as Chief Scientific Officer of Bionaturis, today part of the group for development and manufacturing organization ADL Bionatur Solutions, S.A., where he holds the same position. He has led programs for development of biotechnological active principles, consolidating partnerships with international pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies in projects dedicated to prevention of infectious diseases or immunomodulation. He is also responsible for innovation and creation of intellectual property. Since 2013, Dr. Infante is also the CEO of Vaxdyn, a start-up company based in Seville developing vaccines against bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics, where he is also a shareholder. Dr. Infante teaches a Biotechnology course and is responsible for Biotechnology Master Students in the University Pablo de Olavide of Seville.
Teresa Rayón
Teresa Rayón is an experimental biologist and her research focuses on stem cells and embryonic development. In 2014, she got a doctorate in sciences from the Autonomous University of Madrid under the direction of Miguel Manzanares at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC). Teresa joined James Briscoe’s lab in January 2016 as an EMBO post-doctoral fellow to understand species-specific timescales during motor neuron formation.