Luis Hortells
Virgečilgehus
Luis Hortells is an associate professor at the Cardiovascular Research Group, Department of Medical Biology. His research focuses on understanding cell signaling mechanisms in the heart and the peripheral nervous system at different stages of life. He also teaches physiology in different degrees.
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Dutkanberoštumit
The focus of his research is understanding cell signaling of different cell types in the cardiovascular and peripheral nervous system throughout life. The ongoing research is based on three main goals: A) understanding neonatal cardiac regeneration in order to improve myocardial infarction outcomes later in life, B) exploring the roles of glial cells of the intracardiac nervous system and their implications in abnormal cardiac rhythm, C) unveiling cell aging mechanisms in peripheral nerves to intervene them and preserve strength in the elderly, and prevent sedentarism.
Member of research group
CV
Education
2012-2016 PhD in biomedicine and biotechnology. Summa cum laude. Title of thesis: Medial vascular calcification mechanisms in uremia and hyperphosphatemia. Supervisor of thesis: Prof. Victor Sorribas
2014-2015 MSc in basic sciences. Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.
2010-2011 Small animal medicine and surgery internship. Hospital Clínico Veterinario de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain.
2005-2010 Doctor in Veterinary Medicine, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.
Recent Workshops:
2024 Molecular mechanisms of aging and regeneration. EMBO, Greece.
2023 Epigenetic lecture series SFB 992
2022 Next Generation Sequencing SFB1425 wet-lab course, Goethe Universität, Frankfurt, Germany.
2022 Grant Writing for Scientist (online), organized by the Centre for Integrative Biological Signaling Studies, University of Freiburg, Germany.
2020 RNAseq workshop, UC Davis, Sacramento, CA, United States of America.
2020 Molecular Mechanisms of Neuronal Connectivity, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, United States of America.
Work experience
2022-2024 Senior scientist. Institute of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Freiburg, Germany. Research topics: Cell reprograming, intra-cardiac and peripheral nervous system aging, and cardiac regeneration.
2021- 2022 Senior scientist. Institute for Experimental Cardiovascular Medicine (IEKM), Freiburg, Germany. Research topics: Intra-cardiac and peripheral nervous system aging, atrial fibrillation, fluorescent imaging development.
2017-2020 Postdoctoral researcher. Heart Institute, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America. Research topics: Intracardiac nervous system development, cardiac valve development, cardiac cell crosstalk.
2016-2017 Postdoctoral researcher. Vascular Medicine Institute, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America. Research topics: Cardiac valve calcification, non-canonical roles of telomerase.
2012-2016 Adjunct Professor. Toxicology and Legal Medicine. Veterinary Medicine School. Universidad de Zaragoza. Zaragoza, Spain. Research topics: Chronic kidney disease, vascular calcification, cell membrane phosphate transport.
2012-2016 Graduate student. Molecular toxicology. Veterinary Medicine School. Universidad de Zaragoza. Zaragoza, Spain. Research topics: Chronic kidney disease, vascular calcification, cell membrane phosphate transport.
2011-2012 Veterinary Surgeon. Mon Animal Berga Veterinary clinic, Berga, Barcelona, Spain
2010-2011 Veterinary intern. Hospital Clínico Veterinario de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
2009-2010 Research student. Cardiology service. Hospital Clínico Veterinario de la Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain. Research topics: Troponin as biomarker of cardiac damage in dogs.
2008-2010 Veterinary apprentice. Clínica Veterinaria Hispanidad, Zaragoza, Spain.
Third party funding
Grants
2020 December- 2023 November Senior scientist support grant from the Andalusian regional government (3-year funding)
2019 January- 2020 December Postdoctoral scholarship of the American Heart Association. Ranked as #1 of the country. United States of America.
2018 June- 2019 June Arnold Strauss Postdoctoral funding, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati, OH, United States of America. 10.000$ to start independent research.
2016 September- 2016 December Visiting scientist scholarship by the Caja de ahorros de Aragón y La Rioja. Kings College London, UK.
2010 October – 2011 November Internship granted by the Hospital Clínico Veterinario de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona.
2009 September- 2010 June Research Student Scholarship. Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Goverment of Spain.
Awards
2019 October Best postdoctoral communication. Heart Institute retreat 2019, Cincinnati, Ohio.
2019 July Travel Award BCVS Scientific sessions 2019, Boston, Massachusetts.
2018 September Best postdoctoral communication. 5o Midwest cardiac valve meeting, 2018, Cleveland, Ohio, United states of America.
2017 October Travel Award10th Vascular Biology Meeting of the NAVBO 2017, Monterrey, CA.
Teaching/mentoring Experience
Four years of experience teaching molecular toxicology at the University of Zaragoza (Spain). Online seminar for pharmacy students in Pharmacology at the University of Freiburg. Supervised pharmacy student interns as part of their curriculum for 2 weeks at the University of Freiburg.
Project and scientific mentoring in molecular medicine (1 BSc (2022, scored 1,0), 1MSc, currently), neuroscience (1 MSc, currently), biology (1 BSc, 2017), bioengineering (1 B.eng, 2019, graduated with honors, Goldwater Scholarship granted to the student), veterinary medicine (1 DVM, 2015) and human medicine (3 MD, currently, 2022 (student starting his PhD in Gladstone Institute, San Francisco, USA), and 2017).
Accredited by the Spanish university quality control organism (ANECA) to teach in public and private universities.
Invited talks
2022 July Invited guest speaker to the internal seminar series at the Division of Cardiology, School of Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Denver, USA
2022 June Institute of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Freiburg, Germany
2021 February Gladstone Institute, San Francisco, USA
2020 December Weinstein Webminar: “Cardiac Lineages and Heart Fields”. Virtual due to Covid-19 pandemic
2019 September ESC Cardiovascular Development Meeting, Málaga, Spain
Editorial work
2024 Guest editor Epigenetics, special issue on Cardiac epigenetics.
2024 Guest editor JoVE, special intracardiac nervous system current methods collection.
Scientific community work
2018-2020 Postdoctoral liaison. Early Career Cardiovascular Researchers. Cincinnati, USA.
2017-2019 Educational committee. North American Vascular Biology Organization, USA.