Escors Murugarren
Dr Natalia López-Andrés has dedicated her scientific career to Biology, graduating from this degree at the University of Navarra. I decided to specialize in cardiovascular sciences doing the doctorate at the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences of the University of Navarra, obtaining the PhD in 2006. I hold a postdoctoral position at the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences in the Centre for Applied Medical Research from 2006 to 2008. During these years I worked with a multidisciplinary research team specialized in the study of heart failure. This expertise enabled me to occupy a postdoctoral position at the INSERM, in the unit U961, from 2008 until January 2013. This unit focuses its research in the mechanisms of action and the diagnostic and therapeutic aspects applied to the field of cardiovascular stiffness-fibrosis and hypercoagulability. In 2013, I obtained the competitive Miguel Servet contract that allowed me to build a new research group in Navarrabiomed, the Translational cardiovascular research group, in the interface between clinical and basic research. Over the past 12 years my laboratory has investigated the role of Aldosterone/mineralocorticoid receptor and its biotargets in heart valve diseases. The Program is part of the “Cardiovascular and Renal Diseases Area” of the Health Research Institute of Navarra (IdiSNA). As part of my research career, I have effectively developed contacts and collaborations in other countries and universities to enhance her knowledge and capabilities. I have participated as a principal investigator in the European FP7 project Fibrotargets, as a work package leader in the COST action ADMIRE and as principal investigator in national and regional projects.
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).