Our team is made up of researchers and specialists in characterization of mechanisms of pathogenesis, the development of oligonucleotide-type and repurposed drugs, in myotonic dystrophy and other genetic diseases
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Principal Investigators
Rubén ArteroFull Professor in the Department of Genetics in the University of Valencia. Dr. Artero studied Biochemistry at the Faculty of Biology of the University of Valencia where he obtained his doctorate degree in 1995. After six years of postdoctoral training at the Mary Baylies lab in the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York investigating the myogenic differentiation in Drosophila, he returned to Spain in 2002. He then won a contract from the prestigious Ramon y Cajal program and a tenure position in 2009. Since 2019 he is a Full Professor of Genetics at the University of Valencia, where he leads the Translational Genomics laboratory.
His research interests include mechanisms of pathophysiology of myotonic dystrophy, with a particular focus on the muscular symptoms, the development of antisense oligonucleotide drugs and the involvement of the Muscleblind proteins in the oncogenic transformation and metastatic potential. To this end, he uses a full range of disease models ranging from bioinformatics to human-derived cells, Drosophila, and mice. Additional research interests are the repurposing of drugs for spinal muscular atrophy and the modeling of the human disease LGMD1F and nephrotic syndromes in Drosophila. He has authored more than 50 international scientific publications, is academic editor of the Scientific Reports journal and is a regular contributor to several others. He has supervised 11 doctoral theses and maintains national and international collaborations. In his innovative aspect, he is inventor in 9 patents and co-founder of the spin-off company ARTHEx Biotech. Google Scholar Research Gate |
Manuel Pérez-AlonsoFull Professor in the Department of Genetics in the University of Valencia. During his academic career, he has supervised over 35 research projects and 65 scientific papers, and five patents that have been licensed to the biopharmaceutical industry. Among his scientific contributions is the participation in four international consortiums of genome sequencing and my work as a scientific advisor for Roche in the field of DNA sequencing.
Furthermore, Dr. Pérez Alonso has collaborated with Life technologies in the development of SOliD technology for DNA sequencing. Among his research articles, three of them were published in the journal Nature. Above all, his research focuses on the development of genomic tools for the genetic diagnosis of hereditary diseases and biopharmaceutical research of rare genetic diseases. Dr. Pérez Alonso has promoted the creation, and been a founding partner, of the company “Sistemas Genomicos” where he was also the Scientific and Strategic Director for 12 years (1998-2009). He was a founding partner and Scientific Director of Valentia BioPharma and IMEGEN, both located in the Scientific Park of the University of Valencia. Recently, he has participated in the creation of several additional biomedical companies. Since 2012, Dr. Pérez Alonso has been the president of the Asociación Española de Emprendedores Científico-Técnicos (AEEC) and from 2012-2018 of the Bioregion of Valencia (BIOVAL). Google Scholar |
Arturo López
- L GB.Sc Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, Biology with specialization in Genetics
- M.S. Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, Molecular Genetics
- Ph.D. Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, Molecular Genetics
- M.B.A. International University of Valencia, Spain, TFM (Innovation in orphan drug development).
My scientific career involves wide experience on research R&D&i projects (from 1995 involved in projects involving Biology, Genetics, human disease and/or therapeutic research). First, during my PhD and postdoctoral work, I was involved in the academic field (Autonomous University of Barcelona and The Hospital for Sick Children at Toronto) developing basic research projects through the use of animal (Drosophila, mouse) and human models (cell lines) but also human patient samples with the goal of deciphering and understanding new aspects of different genetic-linked diseases, focusing on rare diseases like myotonic dystrophy or fragile X syndrome.
Motivated to projects with a higher translational purpose, I moved to the biotech field, taking part of two small biotechnological companies (Valentia BioPharma and Genera Biotech). During my recent career period I´ve been involved as a driving force, coordinator and/or assistant in national and international projects. Projects involved mainly included topics like rare diseases, drug screening, drug development, search and license of biomarkers focused among others on genetic, drug induced, neuromuscular, hepatic pathologies, and drug toxicologic aspects. Interested in keeping close to the private biotechnological/pharmaceutical field, since this is key for all translational research, I worked on improving marketing/business skills by attending an MBA course that helped to broaden the scope of my scientific knowledge. Currently, all my attention to the development of translational projects in the Translational Genomics group.
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