Pablo Garcia De Frutos

Pablo joined the laboratory of Dr. Dahlbäck (Lund University, Sweden) in 1992. Since then, he has studied vitamin K-dependent proteins in plasma (VKDPs) as part of the global mechanisms of response to damage. VKDPs have a unique structure: they bind to phospholipid membranes negatively charged by their N-terminal GLA module, and with receptors or protein substrates from their C-terminal part. The inflammatory processes and haemostasis are interconnected, but the molecular mechanisms of this crosstalk are still being explored. Since 1998, his first line of work as a researcher of the MFR (Medical Research Council of Sweden) was to study the biology of GAS6, a VKDP structurally similar to anticoagulant Protein S, whose function was unknown. He continued this line of research after joining the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) in 2002 as a tenured scientist. The GAS6/ProS-TAM system is an essential component in the response to damage in adult tissues. Recently, they determined the involvement of the GAS6/AXL axis in the fibrotic response of the liver and heart (i.e. heart failure).

Since June 2009 he is the Head of the Department of Cell Death and Proliferation at the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona (IIBB-CSIC). He is also the investigator in charge of the Associated Unit of “Tumoral mechanisms and cancer progression” of the IIBB-CSIC and the IMIM (Barcelona), since September 2018.

Member of the Editorial Board (Section Editor) of “Thrombosis and Haemostasis” (since 2003), and Associate Editor of “Plos One” (since 2014).