José Carlos Segovia Sanz

Dr. José Carlos Segovia has focused his research on the study of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), their interaction with viral pathogens, their ex vivo purification and manipulation and, on gene transfer of Hematopoietic Stem Cells, with the aim of developing gene therapy protocols for the treatment of genetic diseases with hematopoietic pathology. He is currently the Head of the Cellular Technology Division at the Center for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT). He has published more than 100 scientific articles in journals of high impact in the areas of Gene Therapy and Cell Therapy, has participated in more than 45 projects, being a Principal Investigator of more than 10 and has obtained 7 patents, one of them already licensed. During the last years he has focused his research on the development of gene therapy protocols for Pyruvate Kinase Deficiency (PKD). He has achieved the Orphan Drug Designation by the European Agency and the American Agency for Medicines (EMA and FDA, respectively) for an addition gene therapy drug, which will be used in the first-in-human gene therapy clinical trial for PKD. He has coordinated meetings with PKD affected patients in Spain and Europe, to report on the progress being made with this new therapy. Recently, he has applied the new technologies of gene editing to the treatment of PKD. As a result of these studies, he has published 3 scientific papers and presented a patent that is in the process of being approved. He has directed three workshops of gene editing during the last years. Dr. Segovia is also a collaborator in master's degrees in biotechnology and biomedicine taught at various public and private universities and is the assistant coordinator of the Genetic Engineering module at the Biotechnology Master's Degree at the Francisco de Vitoria University. Finally he has been vocal and secretary of the Spanish Society of Gene and Cell Therapy and currently vice president of the Iberian Cytometry Society.