I earned my degree in Biology in 1984 (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). After a brief training period in London in 1985, I moved to the Hospital 12 de Octubre, in Madrid, where I was appointed head of the Autoimmunity Laboratory for several years. During this period I was actively involved (either as participant or as organizar) in several National and International standardization Workshops. In 1992, I earned my PhD degree (Immunology) with a thesis on the immunogenetics of insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, and later moved to the Universidad Complutense de Madrid as a full Professor in Immunology. Here, my research focused mainly on mucosal immunology involving studies on the role of T lymphocytes in inflammatory bowel disease and gastric adenocarcinoma. In 2007/2008 I was appointed Visiting Professor at Harvard University where I carried out a research project on the expression of the T-cell receptor-zeta chain in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, under the supervision of Dr. Tsokos. Upon my return, I continued with my research on mucosal immunology and initiated anew on o the genetics of uveitis.