Molecular Genetics of Angiogenesis

Rui Benedito graduated in Microbiology and Genetics at the Faculty of Sciences (University of Lisbon) and then did his PhD at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (Technical University of Lisbon) where he became interested in mouse genetics and developmental vascular biology. He then moved to the UK where he did a Postdoc at the London Research Institute (Cancer Research UK) under the supervision of Dr. Ralf Adams. His work in this period focused on understanding the roles of the different Notch ligands and modulators in angiogenesis, for which he received the Peter Hans Hofschneider Prize for the outstanding achievement in the field of molecular medicine. Later he moved to the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine where he identified several other molecular mechanisms that regulate angiogenesis when VEGF signalling is blocked, which has implications for the design of therapies targeting angiogenesis. After his postdoctoral studies, he joined CNIC as a group leader and received the Werner Risau Prize 2013 and the Fundacion Principe de Girona Science Prize in 2014. At CNIC, his group has developed genetic technology of broad interest and is using it to understand the biology of blood vessels at high resolution. This knowledge can be later used to develop better strategies to target blood vessels in cancer and cardiovascular disease. His group was also awarded European Research Council Grants in 2014 (StG) and 2020 (CoG).