Carlos Martínez Alonso

As an immunologist, he has contributed significantly to the understanding of lymphocyte activation and its implication in autoimmune diseases. He identified some of the mechanisms involved in cytokine- and chemokine-activated signaling pathways and their relevance in HIV-1 infection, cell migration and cancer. Today he is interested in stem cell biology, specifically in the molecular mechanisms that control self-renewal vs. differentiation of these cells, and their implication for cancer, regenerative medicine and inflammation. He has published more than 460 peer-reviewed publications in top journals.[4] Under his leadership, a large number of PhD students and postdoctoral scientists have been trained, many of whom are presently in leading academic and biopharmaceutical institutes worldwide. He is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the Academia Europaea, the Hassan II Academy of Sciences and Technologies or Morocco (6), and Doctor honoris causa of several universities. He is a member of Scientific Committees at NATO, Human Frontier Scientific Program (HFSP), the EU and of the editorial board and editor for several scientific publications. He contributes regularly to science dissemination in the media, with more than 70 publications and radio and TV appearances.[5]

He has received awards from the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, the Fundación Ciencias de la Salud, as well as the DuPont Prize for Science,[6] the Carmen y Severo Ochoa, the Rey Jaime I Award for Scientific Research,[7] the Lilly Award of Investigación Preclínica,[8] the Government of Castilla and León Prize, the International Galen Award for Scientific Research, the Spanish National Award of Medicine “Gregorio Marañon”, and the International Award for Science and Technology of the Government of Mexico. He holds the Gran Cruz de la Orden del Mérito Civil.[9]

He was a representative of Europe in the NATO Scientific Program, member of the EMBO Scientific Council, President of the EMBC (European Molecular Biology Conference), Vice-president of the EMBL Board of Trustees (European Molecular Biology Laboratory), Vice-president of EUROHORCS (European Heads of Research Organizations) and member of the ESF Executive Board (European Science Foundation). He was Chair for the ERC Starting Grants in 2007 and of the Life Science panel for the ERC Synergy Grants in 2012 and 2013.[10] He was a member of the board of CDTI (Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial), of the executive board of the Spanish National Library, President of INIA (Spanish Institute for Agrobiology), of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spanish Institute for Health Research), IAC (Institute of Astrophysics in the Canary Islands), IEO (Spanish Institute of Oceanography), and CIEMAT (Center for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research). With Antonio Bernad and Cristina Garmendia, he founded the biotechnology company Genetrix,[11] and with Alfonso Valencia, Roderic Guigo and Jose Dopazo, the bioinformatics company Alma.