Biography
Initially trained as a clinical laboratory technician, Juan began his scientific career in 2017 by working in cancer research in Prof. Villalobo’s lab at the Sols-Morreale Biomedical Research Institute – Autonomous University of Madrid, and Prof. Berchtold’s lab at the University of Copenhagen, where he studied the role of calmodulin in the proliferation and migration of tumour cells. Later, he developed a genuine interest in ALS/MND research and joined Prof. de Lago’s lab at the Complutense University of Madrid in 2019, where he studied the therapeutic potential of cannabinoids in mouse models of ALS/MND, and earned his MSc in Neuroscience in 2020. After joining the Ruepp lab at King’s College London in 2021, he has been investigating how different RNA-binding proteins, especially FUS, are involved in neurodegeneration, using a variety of approaches from in vitro studies to molecular biology techniques and CRISPR-engineered cell panels. In addition to biomedical research, he has worked in different biotech companies and hospital lab settings.
Research interest
Currently, his PhD project aims to explore how liquid-liquid phase separation and RNA-binding, among other molecular mechanisms, contribute to cytotoxicity in FUS-linked ALS/MND.