José Carlos Rodríguez Rey

After my PhD on thestudy of the replication region of plasmids (University of Santander; 1982). Duringmy postdoctoral stay in the Molecular Pathology Department of Oxford University(Sir William Dunn School of Pathology; 1984 and 1985), I started theapplication of recombinant DNA techniques to the study of human gene variants.There, I participated in the isolation and characterization of the gene codingfor Apolipoprotein B. Back in my lab in Santander, I started a project on theMolecular and Genetic basis of atherosclerosis, which went on for more than 20years. During this time, I made a short stay in Paris (I. Pasteur, 2000,4months) to become familiar with the study of the regulation of gene expression.In 2004-05, I spent a sabatical year in Boston (Tufts University,10 months) workingon the interaction between of genomic variants and nutrition. In the last fewyears, I became interested in the role of miRNAs in lipid metabolism. After ashort stay of three months at Yale University (2015) I started the study of therole of miRNAs in the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC)differentiation. Then, I started a new project consisting on the application ofgene silencing with small interference RNAs to human disease. In collaborationwith the group of Professor Carmen Evora, we successfully enhanced boneformation in vivo by silencing Smurf1either using viruses (Rodríguez-Evora et al, 2014) or Gapmers (work inpreparation). At present, we are trying to apply these technologies to thetreatment of systemic disease.
As to my professionalcareer, in 2002 I was appointed as a full Professor of Biochemistry andMolecular Biology in the University of Cantabria, where I was Head of theDeparment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2009-2013) and coordinated PhDstudies for 7 years. Since 2013 I am a corresponding member of the SpanishNational Academy of Pharmacy. I have participated as PI in 9 projects relatedto metabolic diseases, limb development and bone formation, published more than70 articles and supervised 10 PhD thesis.