The field of Developmental Biology is today directed not only at understanding the molecular and cellular bases of embryogenesis, but equally at the design of new therapeutic strategies. This is particularly evident in the area of cardiovascular research. Apart from the obvious link between embryonic development and congenital cardiovascular defects, there is increasing evidence that the homeostatic mechanisms that maintain organ function in adulthood are closely related to those established and operating during development, and that alterations to these mechanisms lie at the origin of many degenerative and hypertrophic diseases. Moreover, tissue repair and regeneration after a vascular accident involve the reactivation of developmental programs through the recruitment and activation of stem cells and their differentiation and integration into the damaged organ. Understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms that operate during embryonic development can thus provide models for exploring the origin, prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
The department is organized into three research programs:
- Cardiovascular Developmental Biology - how embryonic cardiovascular cell lineages differentiate and interact during heart morphogenesis.
- Stem Cell Biology - how the pluripotent state is achieved and maintained in embryonic and adult stem cells.
- Tissue Homeostasis and Repair - the genetic, molecular and cellular basis of the maintenance of the adult cardiovascular system.
These areas are studied using the main vertebrate model systems – zebrafish, chick and mouse – a strategy that permits complementary approaches such as experimental embryology, genetics and mass screening. This main research focus is complemented by more general studies of pattern formation in other classical developmental models such as the limb primordium and the mammalian blastocyst.
- Miguel Torres Sánchez
- Associate Director
- Ext.3107
Miguel Torres received his bachelor’s degree in Biology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 1986, and was awarded his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 1991. The subject of his doctoral studies, carried out in Lucas Sánchez’s laboratory (CIB-CSIC), was the genetic study of early Drosophila development. During his postdoc with Peter Gruss at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Göttingen, Germany), Miguel’s use of directed mutations in mice made an important contribution to elucidating the multiple functions played by the pax gene family during embryonic development. In 1996, Miguel was awarded the title of CSIC Research Scientist at the Spanish National Center for Biotechnology (Centro Nacional de Biotecnología: CNB, Madrid), where he built an internationally recognized team specializing in the study of genetic mechanisms and cell signaling pathways implicated in vertebrate embryonic development. In 2004 he was named Head of the Department of Immunology and Oncology at the CNB, and in 2007 he moved his research group to the CNIC, where he took up the position of Head of the Department of Cardiovascular Developmental Biology, now the Department of Cardiovascular Development and Repair.
Since 2009, Miguel Torres has also occupied the post of Associate Director of the CNIC.
© 2012 Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares