Our laboratory develops two lines of research in neurodegeneration and cell therapy:

• The study of cellular and molecular alterations underlying dopaminergic neurodegeneration.
• The study of the process of self-renewal in neural stem cells (NSCs).

In the first line, we focus on studying molecules related to familial cases of Parkinson’s disease, such as alpha-synuclein, through functional genomic analyses in genetically modified mouse strains. In the second line, we aim to deepen the understanding of the mechanisms that regulate the self-renewal process in NSC populations, trying to understand the maintenance of multipotency and neurogenic capacity, as well as genetic stability. To this end, we study signals and intracellular signaling pathways that modulate the self-renewal process in the natural niches of these cells. We have chosen the mouse model due to the great flexibility of in vitro cellular systems and the existence and availability of numerous genetic resources.

The group belongs to the Biomedical Research Network Center on Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED; CB06/05/0086) and the Cell Therapy (TerCel; RD06/0010/0010 i RD12/0019/0008), both structures of the Carlos III Health Institute–MINECO.