Baena-Lopez laboratory
CASPASELAB: "Research fuels progress" 

Associate Professor and Group leader

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I am a Drosophila geneticist and developmental biologist interested in uncovering the molecular details of essential developmental processes as well as the origin of multiple diseases.

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I was fortunate to gain a wide perspective of developmental biology under the supervision of Professor Antonio García-Bellido at the C.B.M (Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa) during my D.Phil. I moved then to London where I expanded my technical and conceptual knowledge aided by the stimulating supervision of Professor Jean-Paul Vincent. I started my independent research group at the University of Oxford in 2014 and after a successful stint in the UK I have returned to the CBM in Madrid in 2024 as Senior Research Investigator of the CSIC. My lab is interested in uncovering the function and regulation of the apoptosis drivers referred to as caspases in non-apoptotic cellular scenarios. In recent years, we have developed pioneering genetic tools to investigate this fundamental biological question and discovered novel physiological and pathological cellular contexts in which caspases are highly relevant for the implementation of basic cellular functions such as signaling regulation, cell proliferation, and cell differentiation. These findings have provided a better understanding of caspase biological tasks, and in the future, they could facilitate the development of safer and more efficient caspase-based therapies.

CRUK Postdoctoral Researcher

My interest lies in protein/membrane trafficking pathways involved in cellular and organismal development and pathologies. During my extensive scientific globetrotter life I met yeast, Drosophila, mammalian cells, as well as scientists in a variety of amazing places including Austria, the UK, France, and the US, covering various topics including multi-drug resistance in yeast (Prof. Hogenauer), the biogenesis of secretory granules in mammalian neuroendocrine cells (Sharon Tooze), the secretion of Wingless and Hedgehog morphogens in wing precursors and the neuromuscular junction of Drosophila (in the labs of JP Vincent, Pascal Therond, and Vivian Budnik, respectively). Intrigued by the findings of extracellular Hedgehog carriers I went back to mammalian tissue culture and studied the role of extracellular vesicles as vehicles in cancer cell/microenvironment communication and discovered my l’amour with Lemur Tail Kinases (LMTKs; Georgios Giamas’ lab). The association of these trafficking regulators with apoptosis finally caused my curiosity for the two-faced role of caspases in cell death and survival resulting in the elation to have had the opportunity to join Alberto’s group in 2019.

Self-funded DPhil Student

As an undergraduate student, I got my first scientific training in a project related to cancer therapy targeting cell cycle and apoptosis regulation. After I got my Bachelor’s degree in China Agricultural University, I continued with my academic training in the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. During that time, I mainly focused on lymphatic vessel dependent melanoma metastasis (year1) and lysosome related trafficking pathways (year 2 and 3).
Caspases are well-known for their apoptotic regulation for years. When applying for my PhD, I was attracted by the project which emphasized the novel non-apoptotic roles of caspases in proliferation, differentiation and metastasis. All of these new features of caspases can shed new lights on therapies, which currently focuses more on the apoptotic regulation by caspases.