Hector Peinado's Biography

Hector Peinado, Group Leader, Microenvironment and Metastasis Group, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO)

I did my PhD in the laboratory of Dr. Amparo Cano in Madrid (Spain, Biomedical Research Institute “Alberto Sols”) where he specialized in analyzing Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition Mechanisms (J Biol Chem 2003, Mol Cell Biol 2004, J Cell Sci 2004). In my lab we described the molecular mechanisms of EMT regulated by Snail transcription factor and Lysyl Oxidase 2 (EMBO J 2005, Nat. Rev Cancer 2007). We defined a role for beta-catenin in regulating cancer stem cell behavior in skin cancer (Nature (2008). I joined Dr. Lyden’s laboratory at Weill Cornell Medical College as a postdoctoral associate in 2008 to study the crosstalk between tumor cells and bone marrow derived cells during metastatic progression. My work defined that tumor- secreted exosomes educate bone marrow progenitor cells toward a pro-metastatic phenotype (Nature Medicine. 2012). In 2013 I was promoted to Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York. I joined the CNIO in 2015 as the group leader of the laboratory of Microenvironment and Metastasis. My current research goals are focused on understanding the role of tumor-secreted exosomes in the crosstalk with the tumor microenvironment during metastasis (Cell Research, 2014, Nat. Cell Biol, 2015, Nature 2015) and the use of exosomes in liquid biopsies (J. Exp Med. 2019, Cell 2020). I am author of 89 publications since 2003 with more than 19900 cites, a SCOPUS h-index of 42 and a cumulative impact factor of 959. I was awarded with the 1st ASEICA young investigator award in 2015, Pfizer award 2016, Fero Fellow 2016, Marie Curie-WHRI-Academy Fellow in 2016, I3 Excellence Scientific recognition in 2019 and Leonardo BBVA Fellow in 2021.