Rubén Fernández-Santiago

I graduated in Molecular Biology at the University of Oviedo (Spain) in 2003. I earned a PhD in Neuroscience by the University of Tübingen (Germany) in 2009 under the supervision of Prof. T. Gasser, investigating the genetics of neurodegenerative diseases. This lab first identified LRRK2 kinase-activating mutations causing monogenic Parkinson’s disease (PD). In 2009, with a Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant, I joined the lab of Dr. E. Tolosa at IDIBAPS-Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, which is specialised in LRRK2 clinical research. In 2020, I was awarded an ISCIII Miguel Servet grant to investigate mechanisms and biomarkers of mutant LRRK2 using different biomatrices from LRRK2 clinical cohorts. Since 2025, I am Junior Group Leader of the Parkinson's lab at IDIBAPS-Hospital Clínic de Barcelona.