Biologist from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Norte (2000) and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences, mention in Physiology (2007), from the same University. He performed his postdoctoral training at the Universidad de Santiago, Chile (2007-2008) and at NICHD, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA (2009-2013).

In 2013, he returned to Chile as an Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Católica del Norte in the city of Coquimbo. Actually, he is the head of the Purinergic Signaling lab at this place. His research focuses in study the allosteric regulation in purinergic receptors (P2XRs and P2YRs) as well as to establish the role of purinergic signaling in physiological and pathological events such as pain signaling and cancer.

Brief History

My career as a researcher started in 2013 when I started my tenure at the Universidad Católica del Norte, in Coquimbo, that is my actual affiliation. During these years, I have mentored 4 undergraduate students and one graduate student. In addition, a second graduate student Will start her Ph.D. this year. Two postdoctoral fellows have worked in my lab.

Regarding teaching, I have coordinated both undergraduate and graduate courses, besides to give regular classes in different topics. From 2019 I am part of the Ethical Scientific Committee of my Faculty and in the Biosafety Committee of the campus and I also participate in the Outreach Committee of our Department.

I have published more than 30 scientific articles, including 5 from my Ph.D. studies, 8 from my postdoctoral training and a number more now as an established researcher. All these publications are indexed, some of them published in relevant journals of the field such as Pharmacological Reviews, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Neuroscience, The Journal of Physiology, Journal of General Physiology and American Journal of Physiology.

Regarding my productivity indexes, my research group at the Universidad Católica del Norte, together with national and international collaborators besides the publication of more than 10 articles in ISI journals has also actively attended national and international meetings, with 15 congress presentations in 5 years.

My achievements have been acknowledged by the adjudication of FONDECYT projects (Initiation 2012-2015 and Regular 2016-2020) and FONDEQUIP (2014). I have participated as a panel member at the Medicine G1 group in 2017 and also was a member of FONDEQUIP reviewing panel in the period 2015-2016. At international level, I actively participate as a peer-reviewer at ISI Q1-Q2 journals.

Finally, I am a member of the Chilean societies of Pharmacology and Physiology, being from 2019 the general secretary of the Chilean Society of Pharmacology .