THE TEAM
The laboratory is based on the Unit of Biochemistry in the Faculty of Medicine from the Universitat de Barcelona, in the city center. The faculty is side-by-side with the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, a reference worldwide in research and clinical practice. The Faculty of Medicine is the perfect environment for students, researchers and clinicians to interact and collaborate to advance in science.
GROUP MEMBERS
FORMER MEMBERS
Leticia Pérez-Sisqués, PhD.
Post-doctoral research associate in Prof. Albert Basson Lab, King's College, London UK.
Núria Martín-Flores, PhD.
Postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Patricia Salinas' lab, in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, London, UK
Ferran Soler Palazón
Master's student
fsolerpa40@alumnes.ub.edu
Marcel Vives Isern
Master's Student
mvives1304@gmail.com
Arnau Llobet Rosell
PhD Student in Dr. Lukas Neukomm's lab, Lausanne Switzerland
Mercè Canal de la Iglesia
Current position: PhD investigator at Hipra company (Girona, Spain)
Joan Romaní-Aumedes
Current position: Posdoctoral Fellow at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland)
Víctor Pérez Fernández
Current position: PhD Student at Western Sydney University (Australia)
Julián Bobis Camacho
Biomedical Sciences Undergraduate Student
Dr. Malagelada's CV summary:
I graduated and earned my PhD in Biochemistry at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. During my thesis I visited Dr. Mark P. Goldberg's laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis (MO, USA). I defended the doctoral thesis in July of 2003, obtaining the qualification of Excellent Cum Laude. From
this period, I published 3 first-author articles in journals in the
field of ischemia and neuroscience (Malagelada et al., Stroke 2004,
Malagelada et al., Neurobiol of Dis., 2005 and Malagelada et al.,
Neurobiol of Dis., 2009 ) And three more as co-authors.
In October of 2003, I began my first postdoctoral stay in the group of Dr. Nikolaos Robakis in the Dpt. of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City (USA). In June of 2004 I began my second postdoctoral stay in the group of Dr. Lloyd A. Greene, at Columbia University in New York, studying the RTP801 / REDD1 protein in Parkinson's disease. We found that RTP801 induced neuronal death in cellular and Parkinsonian animal models, sequentially inactivating mTOR (Malagelada et al., JNeurosci, 2006) and Akt (Malagelada et al., JNeurosci, 2008). Pharmacological blockade of the induction of RTP801 with rapamycin was protective in cellular and parkinsonian animal models (Malagelada et al., JNeurosci, 2010). In addition, RTP801 proved to play a crucial role in the development of the telencephalon (Malagelada et al., JNeurosci, 2011). In 2008, I got my first "faculty appointment" as Associate Research Scientist in the same department of Columbia University. In June 2009 I was awarded with a Ramón y Cajal contract from Spanish Ministry of Economy (MINECO), and in April 2010 I independently started my research group in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona. In 2017 I became an Associate professor in the Unit of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona. I currently have a research project funded by MINECO, a predoctoral student Leticia Pérez Sisqués, a Neuroscience master student Júlia Solana, and an undergraduate student, Genís Campoy. From 2010 till now:
A) We have enjoyed 4 research projects from MINECO, a European Marie Curie Reintegration project of the European Union, a US project of the M.J. Fox and we are part of a consolidated research group SGR of the Generalitat de Catalunya;
B) We have published 10 research articles (Romaní-Aumedes et al., CDD 2014, Canal et al., Front Neurosci, 2014; Gassó et al., Eur Neuropsychopharm 2015; Martín-Flores et al., Molec Neurobiol 2016; Canal et al., Oncotarget 2016; Saavedra et al., BBA 2017; Creus-Muncunill et al., Mol Neurobiol 2018; Martín-Flores et al., Mol Neurobiol 2019; Creus-Muncunill et al., Brain 2019 (in press); Martín-Flores et al., Movement Disorders (in press) 2019);
C) I have directed 4 doctoral theses of which tthree have already been defended (Dr. Romaní-Aumedes, Dr. Canal and Dr. Martín-Flores) with Excellent Cum Laude, 4 end-of-degree projects (Víctor Pérez, Clara Mauri, Arnau Llobet and Genís Campoy) and five Masters of Neuroscience (Núria Martín-Flores, Víctor Pérez, Leticia Pérez-Sisqués, Arnau Llobet and Júlia Solana).
D) We have filed two patent applications: the first one was successfully transferred to the company, AB Biotics, and the second one is in the process of negotiating with other companies in the sector.
We are also part of an international consortium with whom we are requesting European projects such as the European call for this year JPND.
In October of 2003, I began my first postdoctoral stay in the group of Dr. Nikolaos Robakis in the Dpt. of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City (USA). In June of 2004 I began my second postdoctoral stay in the group of Dr. Lloyd A. Greene, at Columbia University in New York, studying the RTP801 / REDD1 protein in Parkinson's disease. We found that RTP801 induced neuronal death in cellular and Parkinsonian animal models, sequentially inactivating mTOR (Malagelada et al., JNeurosci, 2006) and Akt (Malagelada et al., JNeurosci, 2008). Pharmacological blockade of the induction of RTP801 with rapamycin was protective in cellular and parkinsonian animal models (Malagelada et al., JNeurosci, 2010). In addition, RTP801 proved to play a crucial role in the development of the telencephalon (Malagelada et al., JNeurosci, 2011). In 2008, I got my first "faculty appointment" as Associate Research Scientist in the same department of Columbia University. In June 2009 I was awarded with a Ramón y Cajal contract from Spanish Ministry of Economy (MINECO), and in April 2010 I independently started my research group in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona. In 2017 I became an Associate professor in the Unit of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona. I currently have a research project funded by MINECO, a predoctoral student Leticia Pérez Sisqués, a Neuroscience master student Júlia Solana, and an undergraduate student, Genís Campoy. From 2010 till now:
A) We have enjoyed 4 research projects from MINECO, a European Marie Curie Reintegration project of the European Union, a US project of the M.J. Fox and we are part of a consolidated research group SGR of the Generalitat de Catalunya;
B) We have published 10 research articles (Romaní-Aumedes et al., CDD 2014, Canal et al., Front Neurosci, 2014; Gassó et al., Eur Neuropsychopharm 2015; Martín-Flores et al., Molec Neurobiol 2016; Canal et al., Oncotarget 2016; Saavedra et al., BBA 2017; Creus-Muncunill et al., Mol Neurobiol 2018; Martín-Flores et al., Mol Neurobiol 2019; Creus-Muncunill et al., Brain 2019 (in press); Martín-Flores et al., Movement Disorders (in press) 2019);
C) I have directed 4 doctoral theses of which tthree have already been defended (Dr. Romaní-Aumedes, Dr. Canal and Dr. Martín-Flores) with Excellent Cum Laude, 4 end-of-degree projects (Víctor Pérez, Clara Mauri, Arnau Llobet and Genís Campoy) and five Masters of Neuroscience (Núria Martín-Flores, Víctor Pérez, Leticia Pérez-Sisqués, Arnau Llobet and Júlia Solana).
D) We have filed two patent applications: the first one was successfully transferred to the company, AB Biotics, and the second one is in the process of negotiating with other companies in the sector.
We are also part of an international consortium with whom we are requesting European projects such as the European call for this year JPND.