Presentation
Research and Development
Rafael has spent more than 20 years of his professional career in Abbot Labs, Smith Kline & French, SmithKline Beecham and Glaxo Smith Kline where, as Medical Director based in Madrid, gained broad and extensive experience in clinical research and medical affairs.
He was a member of the Pharmacovigilance National Commission, Ministry of Health , Spain (1993-1996), and Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine of The Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom (1998-2010).
Once he left the pharmaceutical industry he served as Manager, Clinical Research Program (Alzheimer’s Disease), Pasqual Maragall Foundation, Barcelona, a non-for-profit organization, and later as Director, BUC (Biosciences UAM+CSIC) Program, International Campus of Excellence, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid.
In 2011, he was accredited by the Quality Assessment and Accreditation National Agency (ANECA) as University Professor (“Profesor Contratado Doctor”).
He is a member of the Board of Trustees, Grifols i Lucas Foundation on Bioethics, Barcelona (2012- )
He has authored more than 170 articles in peer-reviewed journals on drugs and vaccines belonging to several therapeutic areas, as well as on ethics, methodology and regulation of clinical research and on research integrity.
He is the co-author or co-editor of three books: “Ética e investigación epidemiológica: principios, aplicaciones y casos prácticos” (Sociedad Española de Epidemiología, Barcelona, 1998); “Luces y sombras de la investigación clínica” (Triacastela, Madrid, 2013), and “Ética en la investigación de las enfermedades raras” (Ergon, Madrid, 2016)
He was a member of the Pharmacovigilance National Commission, Ministry of Health , Spain (1993-1996), and Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine of The Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom (1998-2010).
Once he left the pharmaceutical industry he served as Manager, Clinical Research Program (Alzheimer’s Disease), Pasqual Maragall Foundation, Barcelona, a non-for-profit organization, and later as Director, BUC (Biosciences UAM+CSIC) Program, International Campus of Excellence, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid.
In 2011, he was accredited by the Quality Assessment and Accreditation National Agency (ANECA) as University Professor (“Profesor Contratado Doctor”).
He is a member of the Board of Trustees, Grifols i Lucas Foundation on Bioethics, Barcelona (2012- )
He has authored more than 170 articles in peer-reviewed journals on drugs and vaccines belonging to several therapeutic areas, as well as on ethics, methodology and regulation of clinical research and on research integrity.
He is the co-author or co-editor of three books: “Ética e investigación epidemiológica: principios, aplicaciones y casos prácticos” (Sociedad Española de Epidemiología, Barcelona, 1998); “Luces y sombras de la investigación clínica” (Triacastela, Madrid, 2013), and “Ética en la investigación de las enfermedades raras” (Ergon, Madrid, 2016)
Emilio has 28 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry where he has held different responsibilities and senior roles. Over the years, he has lead multidisciplinary international research teams spanning from target identification to clinical candidate selection. Among his various roles, he was VP and Site Head of the GSK Drug Discovery Centre in Madrid with participation in more than 300 Drug Discovery programs and contribution to the identification and preclinical development of over 80 Lead and Candidate molecules. Emilio has also broad experience in collaborative projects with Industrial partners and Academic laboratories worldwide.
Before joining Industry, he held different positions in Academia, initially in the Department of Medical Pathology at the University Hospital of Madrid (Spain), and later in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (US). During these years, he focused on the role of G-protein coupled receptors in the activation of signal transduction pathways with special interest on the regulation of intracellular phospholipases and their role in disease.
Emilio has been very active in the development of the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) where he served as Director on the SBS Board and as Chairman of the SLAS European Council. He has been very active in the creation and development of the Spanish Drug Discovery Network (SDDN).
Before joining Industry, he held different positions in Academia, initially in the Department of Medical Pathology at the University Hospital of Madrid (Spain), and later in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (US). During these years, he focused on the role of G-protein coupled receptors in the activation of signal transduction pathways with special interest on the regulation of intracellular phospholipases and their role in disease.
Emilio has been very active in the development of the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) where he served as Director on the SBS Board and as Chairman of the SLAS European Council. He has been very active in the creation and development of the Spanish Drug Discovery Network (SDDN).
Management and Advisory Team
Óscar is currently Group Leader at the Structural Biology Unit of the CIC bioGUNE, has published 55 papers and has in-depth expertise in the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for the study of biologically relevant proteins and enzymes and has been central to the development of technology for the discovery of pharmacological chaperones and the exploration of new therapeutic intervention lines against different Rare Diseases including Congenital Erythropoietic Porphyria (CEP).
Joaquín obtained a Degree in Pharmacy (Univ. Navarra, 1992). After obtaining a PhD in Science (University Autónoma of Madrid, 1996) he performed post-doctoral research (1998-2003) first at Center for Animal Health (CISA -INIA) and then at Serono Pharmaceutical Institute in Switzerland. In 2004, he became Assistant Professor, first at the University of Texas, Medical Branch and later at Scripps (Florida) from 2006 leading an independent group. In 2009, he was then the recipient of an IKERBasque Research Professor and currently he is a Group Leader at the Proteomic Unit of the CIC bioGUNE (Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences, Biscay, Spain).
Juan obtained a Degree in Biology (Univ. Sevilla, 1994) and a PhD in Biological Sciences (“Alberto Sols” IIB-UAM, 1999) studying yeast as model for cystic fibrosis. He then occupied three postdoctoral positions; one in UAM (Madrid, 1999-2001) studying Walker-Warburg Syndrome, in UCLA (Los Angeles, 2001-2005) studying Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome, and through a Ramon y Cajal Program he incorporated into CIC bioGUNE (Bilbao). Since 2010, Juan has been an Ikerbasque Research Professor leading the exosomes laboratory and the metabolomics platform in CIC bioGUNE with research lines focused in on the discovery of low-invasive biomarkers and novel therapeutics tools for metabolic and rare- diseases.
Ganeko obtained a Degree in Biochemistry (University of Basque Country, 2011), a Master Degree in Molecular Biology and Biomedicine (University of Basque Country, 2012) and a PhD in Molecular Biology and Biomedicine (University of Basque Country, 2012). During his PhD he studied the calcium gating mechanism of a voltage-gated potassium channel based in NMR technique. In this period he got a Short-Term Fellowship in King’s College University (United Kingdom, 2015) where he gained expertise in Molecular Dynamic simulations and Bioinformatics. Since 2016 he is member of Atlas Molecular Pharma and he is involved in CHASSYS(TM) platform.
Hasier obtained a Degree in Biotechnology (Univ. Autònoma de Barcelona, 2010) and a Master’s degree in Microbiology (Univ. Autònoma de Barcelona, 2011) evaluating the use of Mycobacteria in the treatment of bladder cancer. He performed his PhD in Molecular Biology and Biomedicine (Univ. País Vasco, 2015) in CIC bioGUNE working on Transmissible spongiform encephalopaties focused on the interspecies transmission of these devastating neurodegenerative disorders. He has been working in the same institute as post-doctoral researcher during 2016.
Sandra obtained a Degree in Microbiology (University Autonomous of Barcelona, 2013) and a Master’s degree in Public Health (University of Basque Country, 2014). She is currently doing a PhD (Doctorado Profesional, MINECO) focused on searching new therapies against prion diseases.
Administration
Board of Directors
Professor Mato is the Director General of the Center for Co-operative Research in Biosciences (CIC bioGUNE, Biscay, Spain) and the Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials (CIC biomaGUNE, San Sebastián, Spain). He has held various senior academic positions in Spain and the USA and was formerly the President of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). He is an internationally recognised world leading scientist and has published over 225 research articles and his work has been recognized by several national and international awards. In addition in 2002 he founded OWL Genomics (Bilbao, Spain), a biotech company pioneering the use of metabolomics in biomedical research.
Dr. Castellon is a founder and currently serves as the President of the venture capital company Cross Road Biotech Inversiones Biotecnológicas (CRB Inverbio, Madrid, Spain). He holds degrees in Medicine and Surgery (UCM, Spain), Economic and Business Sciences (UAM, Spain), Public Health and Health Policy and Management (Harvard University, USA) and has had an extensive and distinguished career in medicine including: Internal Medicine (Hospital Clínico San Carlos de Madrid); member of the Social Security Medical Inspectorate; responsibility for the planning of INSALUD in La Coruña; Director General of the Galicia Health Service; Vice Director of Health and Social Services and later Undersecretary of the MSC; set up the Spanish National Centres for Cancer and Cardiovascular Research (CNIO and CNIC) and the Spanish Regulatory Agency, of which he was Executive Chairman until 2000. He has also collaborated as an advisor with various research foundations concerned with health sciences.