José Becerra Ratia

Biography

He has been Secretary (1978-81), Vice-dean (1984-86) and Dean (1986-93) from the Faculty of Sciences of the UMA and is Head of the Department of Cell Biology, Genetics and Physiology since 1994. Between 2001 and 2003 he directed the "Andalusian Laboratory of Biology" from the Regional Government of Andalusia (Seville, Spain), which was reorganized under his term of office to become a joint center from the CSIC, the Pablo de Olavide University and the Andalusian Regional Government under the name "Andalusian Center of Developmental Biology" (CABD). He has also been part of the Technical Commission of the National Bank of Cell Lines (2006-12),member of the External Scientific Committee of the Andalusian Biobank (since 2016), a member of the board of the FIMABIS Foundation (2005-12), part of the Science Commission from the ANECA for the evaluation of full professor candidates (2007-11), and part of the Steering Committee as well as coordinator of the Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Branch (2011-15) and Deputy Scientific Director of the Ciber-bbn (since 2015). He is also Vice-president of the Academy of Science of Malaga.

Research Interest

His current research interests are focused on the study of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of fin regeneration in zebra fish as a biological model to provide basic knowledge to understand tissue regeneration and the translation of such knowledge to the human clinics through cartilage and bone tissue engineering. In his laboratory, therapeutic tools based on mesenchymal stem cells, recombinant proteins with specific molecular domains (bFGF, BMP-2 and BMP-6), biomimetic peptides and micro- and nanostructured biomaterials for osteo- and chondrogenesis based on collagen, ceramics, polymers and titanium are currently being developed. He is the author of more than a hundred scientific articles and inventor of eight registered patents. He is the principal investigator (PI) of several research grants and contracts with private companies, PI of the research group BIO217 (PAID) as well as of the Bioengineering and Tissue Regeneration Lab (LABRET-UMA). His research group is a member of the Cell Therapy Network (TerCel) and of the Ciber-bbn (Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid).