Faustino Mollinedo, PhD

Prof. Faustino Mollinedo was born in Ribadeo (Lugo, Spain) on February 23rd, 1955. He received his degree in Chemistry in 1977 and later on his PhD in 1982 from the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain) in 1982 (working on the characterization of a bacterial F1-ATPase in Dr. Emilio Muñoz’s laboratory). He worked as a post-doc fellow at Dartmouth Medical School (Hanover, NH, USA) in Dr. Donald L. Schneider’s laboratory (1982-1983), where they identified a novel cytoplasmic granule (coined as tertiary granule, enriched in gelatinase) in human neutrophils, and then at New York University Medical Center (New York, NY, USA) in Dr. Gerald Weissmann’s laboratory (1984-1985), working on neutrophil activation. In 1986 he obtained a tenure position at the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas - CSIC), establishing successively his laboratory in Madrid (CIB, 1986-94), Valladolid (Instituto de Biología y Genética Molecular - IBGM, 1994-2000) and Salamanca (Centro de Investigación del Cáncer – CIC, Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular del Cáncer - IBMCC; 2000-2016). He is full professor at the CSIC since 2002, and he has recently moved to the Center for Biological Research (Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas – CIB, CSIC) as head of the Laboratory of Cell Death and Cancer Therapy in Madrid (2016-present). His laboratory has made several important contributions in neutrophil biology, mechanism of action of antitumor ether lipids and alkylphsopholipid analogs, apoptosis as a target in cancer therapy, and has pioneered studies on lipid rafts as a novel chemotherapeutic target. He, together with Dr. Consuelo Gajate, identified for the first time the translocation of Fas/CD95 death receptor into lipid raft membrane domains as a new mechanism of apoptosis regulation, unveiling lipid rafts as a new target in cancer therapy. His laboratory has contributed to the discovery of several cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in neutrophil biology, apoptosis regulation and cancer chemotherapy. A number of major achievements can be listed as follows: a) identification of a novel cytoplasmic granule we coined tertiary granule in human neutrophils; b) identification of the involvement of SNARE proteins in neutrophil exocytosis; c) selective induction of apoptosis in cancer cells by an antitumor ether lipid; d) identification of the translocation of Fas/CD95 death receptor into lipid rafts as a novel mechanism of apoptosis regulation, leading to the involvement of lipid rafts as a new target in cancer chemotherapy; e) identification of human neutrophils as one of the major cell types expressing arginase I; f) induction of selective apoptosis (both in vitro e in vivo) in several hematological tumors through a novel lipid raft-targeted therapy; g) identification of endoplasmic reticulum as a novel therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer. He has published over 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals (over 12000 citations and an H-index of 51, according to the Web of Science; over 16000 citations and an H-index of 59, according to Google Scholar). He has been awarded with “Young Investigator Award” (Spanish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) in 1989, and with "Norte de Castilla Award - Scientific Research” (Valladolid, Spain) in 1997. He belongs to the editorial board of several scientific journals (Anti-Cancer Drugs, Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry, Recent Patents on Anti-Cancer Drug Discovery, International Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, World Journal of Biological Chemistry, World Journal of Pharmacology, World Journal of Translational Medicine). His main areas of research include: lipid rafts, death receptors, cell death, apoptosis, signal transduction, cancer and apoptosis, cancer stem cells, antitumor drugs, alkylphospholipid analogs, edelfosine, drug mechanism of action, endoplasmic reticulum stress, neutrophils, cytoplasmic granules, exocytosis, SNARE proteins in the immune system, neutrophil differentiation and activation, inflammation and cancer, neutrophils and cancer, arginase, anti-Leishmania agents, nanoparticles as anticancer drugs.

Articles Published in Annals of Translational Medicine

Novel therapeutic approaches for pancreatic cancer by combined targeting of RAF→MEK→ERK signaling and autophagy survival response