Deputy Director of Scientific Activities and Technical Programs

David Santamaría, Ph.D.

David Santamaría is a Research Investigator at the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC), the main scientific institution of the Spanish central government.

His training includes a Ph.D. in Biology from the University Autónoma (Madrid, Spain, 1999) and a postdoctoral period at the Welcome CRC Institute and the MRC Cancer Cell Unit (Cambridge, UK; years 1999–2003). He then worked as Staff Scientist Spanish National Cancer Research Centre –CNIO– (Madrid, Spain, 2003–2016), and, subsequently, as Principal Investigator at the European Institute of Chemistry and Biology –IECB– (Bordeaux, France, 2016–2021). Since November 2021 he is a Research Investigator at the Cancer Research Center (Centro de Investigación del Cáncer, CIC) of Salamanca (Spain). Since 2024 he is the CIC Deputy Director of Scientific and Technical affairs.

His work has been focused on the understanding the basic principles that govern cell division, from how mitogenic signalling is orchestrated to its impact on the cell cycle machinery. These approaches benefited from the use of genetically engineered mouse models and allowed the study of how oncogenic RAS signalling initiates and sustains tumour progression. Likewise, these approaches have been instrumental to elucidate vulnerabilities with therapeutic potential in RAS-driven cancers. These and other contributions have been published in journals such as Cancer Cell (2010, 2011, 2021), Cell (2004, 2018), EMBO J (2003, 2012), Nature (2007, 2017, 2024), Nat Medicine (2016) and PNAS (2020) among others.

For his publication list, check this link.