A Scientist, a Bicycle and cutting-edge Science

One cold morning in February 2018, he woke up from a dream in which he clearly saw that he was cycling through many countries visiting educational communities to talk about Science.

Before having this revelation, he wants you to know where he comes from, because where he goes, only science and his bike know.

The context of his life is as important as the project, since they both merge and cannot be understood separately.

He was born in Albacete on September 21st, being the youngest of three brothers in a home that, with his parents efforts, never lacked anything. He and his brothers were all given opportunities to develop themselves and were supported to pursue whatever path they chose.

Like almost every single kid in fifth grade, he wanted to be a footballer and even became good at it, playing for the young team of his hometown team, Albacete Balompie.

He played chess decently, and as a teenager he also improved his table tennis skills. He can tell you that he once beat Dong Hee, a young Korean champion (although he will never admit it).

He went to Madrid to study at the Complutense University. He studied (and completed) his degree in Veterinary Medicine where he started to spend a few hours in the laboratory of the Biochemistry Department of the Faculty.

This opened the way for him to pursue a scientific career: he obtained a degree in Biochemistry and worked, first, as a laboratory technician at the Karolinska Institute (Sweden). As an anecdote, his first ‘boss’, Prof. Tomas Hökfelt’s), a humble and hard-working person like the most, was one of the most published scientists in the XX century… he found out when he was gone, Tomas never told him.

He got his PhD in Microbiology at Trinity College in Dublin (Ireland) where he started researching about Malaria and discovered one of his true passions, apart from the bicycle.

He continued working on malaria at ISGlobal, this time with affected pregnant women, in the Brazilian Amazons, where he learned infinite patience, value the simplest things and, also, missed his family.

Then, he took a scientific break. He became the cleaner and receptionist of the best Hostel in Seville.

Later he worked in world-wide known sport shop, fixing bicycles and selling fishing rods, as happy and committed as in everything else.

Because he is fortunate to have his mother, an example of constancy and humility; his father, an example of vitality and honesty; and his two brothers, both an example of constant personal growth.

One of the best formulas that he has ever applied in his life is:

(K + S) x A

Do you know it? 

After this point or period of reflection, he work for a spin-off company developing novel antibiotics and, after that, he spent three years at the Wellcome Sanger Institute (Cambridge, UK), one of the best genetic and genomic research centres in the world.

A few months ago he joined a friend’s research group, to work at MIVEGEC-IRD (Montpellier, France). Together, they both wrote a project, in which more Scicling actions were planned, and that has granted him one of the most prestigious scientific contracts in Europe: a Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship.