José Antonio López García

Presently Professor of Physiology at the University of Alcalá and leader of the research group on Neurobiology of Pain. Licentiate in Biology and Psychology at (UCM), I took my PhD on Neurobiology of Depression under the supervision of Dr Rial at the UIB. I then moved to the UK for a period of 7 years in pursue of my scientific interests in neurobiology through postdoctoral training in several Universities. I worked at the University of Exeter (Department of Psychology) to learn electroencephalography and evoked potential techniques applied to humans. At the University of Cardiff (Department Physiology), I learned to perform electrophysiological recordings in live animals and acquired a solid background knowledge on biological amines, particularly serotonin. Then I moved to the University of Leeds (Department of Physiology) where I spent 4 years and learned to perform intracellular recordings and in vitro preparations of the spinal cord, contributing to develop a sophisticated preparation of the cord with attached sciatic nerve and hind paw. In this period, I acquired a solid background on amino acidergic transmission and single neuron. In this laboratory, I gained the position of Senior Research Fellow after granting of my own research projects (Wellcome Trust and Royal Society). I returned to Spain with a Contrato de Reincorporación (equivalent to present Ramon y Cajal fellowships) to work in a very motivating project initiated by Dr Cerveró at the University of Alcala, which was the creation of a research lab to study pain mechanisms. In this period, I developed the basis for my own group and acquired a solid background on pain mechanisms. Since 2002 when Dr Cerveró moved to other institution, I have coordinated my own group formed by two or three staff members plus a variable number post-doctoral researchers, students, technicians and visitors. We have obtained regular financing all through this period from public and private sources. We have developed new techniques and experimental approaches in search for specificity in our results. Recently we have developed new techniques for extracellular recordings of up to 64 recording sites as well as artificial intelligent-based analysis tools to reconstruct the effective connectivity linking the neurons recorded. These later developments have taken up time and resources but will be exploited in the next future. We have contributed significantly to gain knowledge on the working of the spinal cord and the central mechanisms of pain. We keep in good terms with many European, American and Australian laboratories working on our field. Our group has an international reputation, which has allowed us to work with foreign pharmaceutical companies and to be invited to participate in international symposiums of great relevance.