Jacinto López Sagaseta is a protein crystallographer with a broad expertise in the structural basis of antigen recognition by immune receptors. He leads the Unit of Protein Crystallography and Structural Immunology since its creation in 2019. The Unit is specialized in the experimental determination of the molecular structure of proteins and their interactions with other biological components (proteins, peptides, lipids, DNA, etc.). In 2010 he obtained a postdoctoral scholarship from the Ministry of Science (Ref. 1046777, Programa Nacional de Movilidad de Recursos Humanos del Plan Nacional de I‐D+i 2008‐2011), Innovation and Universities, in 2015 he was awarded a Marie-Curie contract by the European Commission (Grant 659615), and in 2018 with the Ramón y Cajal Program (RYC-2017-21683), from the Ministry of Science and Innovation. Among his recognitions, he has accreditation I3 from the Ministry of Universities and accreditation as a Contracted Doctor Professor by Aneca. He is a guest evaluator for scientific journals as well as the State Research Agency.
He has been a researcher at international centers such as the University of Chicago (2009-2015), Novartis Vaccines (2015-2016) and GSK Vaccines (2016-2017), where he led the experimental determination of numerous structures of TCR-antigen-MHC and antibody-antigen complexes. The results of his research have been published in scientific journals, being lead author in research articles published by Nature Communications, Blood, PNAS or EMBO Journal, as well as in immunology textbooks (Immunobiology, 9th Edition, Encyclopedia of Immunobiology, 2016).
