The goals of the research group are to characterize the role of the repair (which are required for error-free DNA repair), and genetic recombination functions (which are required to adquire genetic material through horizontal gene transfer); and their contribution to chromosomal segregation. We are studying these function that are essential to promote genetic stability and the relationship among them and the role that they play in the reversion of the resistance and/or persistence to antibiotics in bacteria of the Firmicutes phylum.

The major interest of the group is to understand the bacterial responses to stress. We specifically study hypermutation and hyperrecombination as bacterial “strategies” to speed adaptation to environmental stresses. One of the models used here is antibiotic stress and the development of antibiotic resistance. Our work is focused on both stable and inducible hypermutation/hyperrecombination in E. coli, P. aeruginosa and M. smegmatis/tuberculosis.

To describe the rules of assembly of microbial communities. To achieve predictive capacity on the function of such communities, given their composition. This will allow determination of the conditions that favor particular combinations of species able to fulfill specific goals in biotechnological, clinical, and ecological scenarios.

Our laboratory is committed to understanding how bacteria that inhabit natural niches sense and process multiple environmental signals into distinct responses –both at the level of single cells and as a community. Unlike laboratory settings, in which growth conditions can be controlled and changed one at a time, bacteria in the environment must perpetually make decisions between activating metabolic genes for available, frequently mixed C-sources and those for escaping or adapting to physicochemical stress.

Our group is interested in different aspects of Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Systems Biology. Our goal is to obtain new biological knowledge with an "in-silico" approach which complements the "in-vivo" and "in-vitro" methodologies of Biology. This mainly involves mining the massive amounts of information stored in biological databases. Besides our lines of scientific research, we also collaborate with experimental groups providing them with bioinformatics support for their specific needs, and participate in different teaching projects.

Our group is interested in the relationship between virus and cancer

Study of diseases associated with disruption of actin filaments. The assembly and disassembly of filamentous actin structures provides a driving force of dynamic processes such as cell motility and growth cone and tumor invasion, and therefore require special control and precise temporal. The reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton is regulated by actin-binding proteins such as WASP (Wiskott Aldrich syndrome protein) and WIP (WASP interacting protein). WIP stabilizes actin filaments and regulates the location and WASP degradation.

The research group's main objective is to deepen the knowledge about the molecular and structural biology of Birnaviridae family members, as well as developing new approaches to prevent birnavirus-borne diseases. Our work involves the use of a wide variety of techniques of virology, molecular genetics, biochemistry, structural and cell biology as well as an intense collaboration with other research groups. The knowledge generated by our group has contributed significantly to solving the birnavirus particle structure and to decipher the virus assembly pathway.

Role of cell type specific transcription factors on the development of neuronal circuits in the mammalian cerebral cortex. Implications in mental disease.

Functional analysis of transcriptional repressor DREAM