Our professionals
Dr. José Ángel Martínez Climent
Principal Investigator of Lymphomas Group, Hemato-Oncology Program.
Preferential dedication to the study of the molecular pathogenesis of lymphomas and multiple myeloma and the search for therapeutic strategies for these hematological tumors.
Professional career
Degree in Medicine from the University of Valencia in 1986.
Ph.D. in Cancer Biology and Genetics from the University of Chicago (USA) in 1996.
He is board-certified in pediatrics and pediatric hemato-oncology in Spain and has received training in cancer genetics, tumor biology, and cancer immunology in the United States.
He is a reference in the field of hematological malignancies. He is specialized in basic studies on the biology of lymphoma and myeloma, genomics and immunology, and the preclinical and translational studies that investigate new therapeutic approaches in experimental models of the disease intending to improve patient treatment.
He is part of Cima since 2005. He is currently the principal investigator of the Lymphoproliferative Syndromes Group within the Hemato-Oncology Program at Cima.
He teaches at the School of Medicine of the University of Navarra.
RESEARCH AREAS
He holds four patents, including one in 2022 covering MM mouse models and experimental protocols.
He has been the PI on many competitive grants and research contracts with international organizations and large pharmaceutical companies in the last three years.
AREAS OF INTEREST
- Deciphering immune escape mechanisms across genetically heterogeneous subtypes of B-cell lymphomas.
- Understanding how the immune biology conditions immunotherapy responses in multiple myeloma.
- Determining the role of endogenous retroelements in cancer as targets that condition therapy responses and as drivers of malignant transformation.
Activity
As an educator
He is a full professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Navarra, teaching the subjects "Medicine and Pediatrics" and "Translational Research in Medicine".
He has supervised 13 Doctoral Theses, 4 at the University of Valencia and 9 of them at the University of Navarra.
He has directed the work of more than 25 postdoctoral fellows and junior scientists for more than 1 year, most of whom are currently engaged in biomedical and clinical research in academic centers, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology companies, or clinical centers.
He has also directed more than 30 undergraduate and graduate students from the Schools of Medicine, Science, and Pharmacy and Nutrition at the University of Navarra since 2005.
As a researcher
He is the author of 105 scientific articles (72 in D1), 9 as first author and 44 as senior/corresponding author. His papers have received more than 5.000 citations (JCR) and have been published in leading journals such as Blood, PNAS, Nature Communications, Cell Reports, Cancer Cell, Cancer Discovery, and Nature Medicine.
He has pioneered the application of high-throughput genomic technologies to define DNA and RNA changes in tumor cells and discover key genes in lymphoma, including MCL, FCL, and DLBCL.
His team has also determined the role of BCL2 family proteins in therapeutic resistance in B-cell lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
He is focused on the development and characterization of transgenic mouse models of human-like B-cell tumors and genetically heterogeneous mouse models of multiple myeloma.
Scientific highlights
- PI on a large number of competitive grants and research contracts with international organizations and large pharmaceutical companies in the last three years.
- Holder of 4 patents, two of them on the use of experimental models of cancer.
More information
Latest scientific publications
- Large T cell clones expressing immune checkpoints increase during multiple myeloma evolution and predict treatment resistance. Scientific Publication Sep 20, 2023 | Magazine: Nature Communications
- Targeting the immune microenvironment in Waldenström macroglobulinemia via halting the CD40/CD40-ligand axis. Scientific Publication May 25, 2023 | Magazine: Blood