Members' Directory

Biography: PhD studies in Madrid (Spain), Universidad Complutense, in Chemistry, specialty Biochemistry.
April 1994 - August 1995 / C. Sander's Biocomputing group at EMBL Heidelberg.
August 1995 - May 1996 / A. Valencia's Protein Design Group at the Centro Nacional de Biotecnología in Madrid.
May 1996 - September 1996 / C. Sander's Biocomputing group at EMBL Heidelberg.
September 1996 - July 1998 / C. Sander's Biocomputing group at European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK.
July 1998 - May 2003 / P. Bork's Biocomputing group at EMBL Heidelberg.
May 2003 - present / Scientist. Head of the Bioinformatics Group at the Ottawa Health Research Institute.
Sept 2006 - present / Scientist. Group leader at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin.

Biography: 1982 Graduate in Biology (Univ. Complutense of Madrid, Spain)
1986 PhD in Biology (Univ. Complutense of Madrid and Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas-CSIC, Spain)
1987-1988 Post-Doctoral scientist, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas-CSIC, Madrid, Spain.
1988-1991 Post-Doctoral scientist, Institut für Molekularbiologie und Tumorforschung. (Lab Prof. M. Beato), Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany.
1991-1994 Post-Doctoral researcher, EMBL Gene Expression Program (Lab. Dr. H. G. Stunnenberg). Heidelberg, Germany.
1995-1996 Research Associate, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas-CSIC, Madrid, Spain.
Since 1997 Staff Scientist and Research Group Leader at the Instituto De Biomedicina de Valencia (CSIC)., Valencia, Spain.

Research interests: Unraveling the molecular mechanisms through which Nuclear Hormone Receptor signalling (mainly Retinoic Acid and Thyroid Hormone) influences cell differentiation in mammalian neural cells.

Biography: Rosa Barrio got her master degree in Biology (specialty: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) from the Autonoma University of Madrid (UAM) in 1988. She did her Ph. D. in the Center of Molecular Biology ?Severo Ochoa? (CBMSO), a mixer centre between the UAM and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC). During her Ph. D., granted by the Basque Government, she studied the ubiquitin genes using Drosophila melanogaster as a model system. After she got her Ph. D. in 1993 she moved to the laboratory of Professor Fotis C. Kafatos in Harvard University (USA) and soon after she was granted by the Human Capital and Mobility Program form the European Union to continue her research in Crete. In 1995 she was granted by the Spanish Ministery of Education to move to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany), always under the supervision of Professor Kafatos, where she continued her research on Spalt proteins and BPM signaling during the wing and nervous system development in Drosophila. In 2001 she moved to the CBMSO (UAM/CSIC) in Madrid, to work with Dr. J. F. de Celis in the laboratory of Professor Antonio García-Bellido, and she obtained a Ramón y Cajal contract in 2003. Since December 2004 she is in charge of the Laboratory 1 in the Functional Genomics Unit at CIC bioGUNE, where she will continue her research on Spalt transcription factors and BPM signaling in Drosophila.

Biography: Born in Barcelona on April 3, 1959.
Married, children: 4
I studied Biology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (1977-1981) and did my PhD Thesis at the Institut de Biologia Fonamental (Supervisor: Dr. Enrique Querol) (UAB). PhD degree at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (1987).
Postdoctoral at the Centre d'Investigació i Desenvolupament (1988-1989) in the group of Dr. Ferran Azorín. Postdoctoral at EMBL in the group of Dr.Iain Mattaj (1990-1992). Permanent researcher at the Institut de Biologia Molecular de Barcelona, CSIC since 1993.
Research lines:
- Drosophila GAGA factor in activation and repression of transcription.
- Drosophila histone H1.

Biography: Francisco Blanco obtained his Bachelor and Doctorate degrees in Chemistry at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and did his Ph.D. thesis as supervised by J. L. Nieto at the Instituto de Estructura de la Materia - CSIC, Madrid, in 1992. As a Graduate student he used Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy for the conformational analysis of peptides in solution as models of the early stages in protein folding. From 1993 - 1997 he was as a Postdoctoral Fellow at EMBL- Heidelberg in L. Serrano’s Group to work on protein folding using protein and peptide models. In 1997 he moved to R.Tycko’s Lab at the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK, NIH, Bethesda-USA), as Visiting Fellow. Blanco applied the techniques of specific isotope labelling and solid state NMR to the analysis of the HIV-Rev protein structure, which assembles into fibers. In the year 2000 he returned to Spain to work with M. Rico at the Instituto de Química Física “Rocasolano” - CSIC, Madrid, to participate in an international structural genomics project. In 2002 he was awarded a Ramón y Cajal contract and moved to the CNIO to lead the NMR group. He characterized the tumour suppressor ING4 as a methylated histone tail reader, and and other proteins involved in DNA repair. In december 2007 he joined the Structural Biology Unit at the CIC bioGUNE, where he works on the structural characterization of proteins and protein-protein interactions involved in cell adhesion, chromatin remodelling and DNA repair.

Biography: Positions:
- 2000-2002: Ad honorem assistant at the Laboratorio de Fisiología y Biología Molecular, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Adviser: Dr.
Anabella Srebrow.
- 2002-2003: “Estímulo”, undergraduate student. Research fellowship awarded by the Universidad de Buenos Aires. Laboratorio de
Fisiología y Biología Molecular, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Adviser: Dr. Anabella Srebrow.
- 2003-2008: Graduate student. Research fellowship awarded by CONICET, Argentina. Laboratorio de Fisiología y Biología Molecular,
Buenos Aires, Argentina. Adviser: Dr. Anabella Srebrow.
- Present position (since 04/2008): Posdoctoral fellow and Research Assistant. Research fellowship and position assigned by CONCET, Argentina. Laboratorio de Fisiología y Biología Molecular, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Superviser: Dr. Alejandro Colman-Lerner.

Teaching experience:
1998: Teaching assistant at the National college of Buenos Aires, Argentina
2001-2003: Undergraduate teaching assistant at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
2003-present: Auxiliary Teacher competed. Graduate teaching assistant at the University of Buenos Aires, Faculty of Exact and Natural Science, Physiology and Molecular and Cellular Biology Department (FCEN-UBA) in the subjects “Introduction to the Molecular
and Cellular Biology”, “Genetics I”, “Molecular Genetics”, “Genetic Engineering” and “Concepts and Thecnics of Biotechnology”.