مؤلف: Dr José Becerra

Dr Jose Becerra is Professor of Cell Biology at the University of Málaga (Spain) since 1989. He has been Dean Secretary, Vice-Dean and Dean of the Faculty of Sciences of Málaga, and is now the Head of the Department of Cell Biology, Genetics and Physiology. From 2001 to 2003 he was the Director of the Andalusian Laboratory of Biology (LAB, Seville), which was converted in the Andalusian Centre for Developmental Biology (CABD) under his term. He is a member of the Technical Committee of the National Stem Cell Bank since 2007, patron of the Board of Trustees of IMABIS Foundation (Mediterranean Institute for the Advance of Biotechnology and Health Research), coordinator of the Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Area of the the Biomedical Research Networking Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN), and member of the Direction Committee of the CIBER-BBN. His research is focused on bone and cartilage regeneration, which his group studies in different model organisms, ranging from zebrafish to humans. His laboratory is developing therapeutic tools based on mesenchymal stem cells, recombinant proteins with specific molecular domains (bFGF, BMP-2 and BMP-6), peptides and biomimetic biomaterials. He has authored over one hundred articles and seven patents. Dr Leonor Santos-Ruiz is Senior Researcher of the CIBER-BBN network at the Andalusian Center for Nanomedicine and Biotechnology (BIONAND). She started her career studying the cellular and molecular basis of lower vertebrates” amazing ability for tissue regeneration, with a special attention to bone and spinal cord repair. She moved on to apply her knowledge in regenerative biology to therapeutic bone repair through two main research approaches: study the interactions cell-materials in order to engineer bone tissue; and study the molecular basis of the differentiation pathway stem to progenitor cell and then on to osteoblast and osteocyte. This latter approach drove her to the study of skeletal dysplasia, a field in which she is trying to develop combined cell and tissue engineering therapies. She has worked in University of Málaga (Spain); Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro (INRC-CBA; Italy), and Institute of Child Health (ICH-UCL; UK).