Fernando Giraldez

Group website

Research Outline

The first step in hearing is achieved by the hair cells, which are the sensory receptors of the inner ear. The deterioration of these cells is the most common cause of hearing loss, a major health problem in the industrialized world. My research has been devoted to understand the molecular mechanisms of hair cell and auditory neuron development, and to apply this knowledge to support regenerative cell therapies.

Current Projects 

• Development and regeneration of inner ear hair cells.

No longer running my own lab, I maintain my research by continue collaborating with other groups and also extended my activity into scientific writing and science dissemination activities. Current projects are: a) IGF1 in hair cell development and degeneration, in collaboration with Isabel Varela-Nieto (IIB, CSIC-UAM), and 2) transcription factor-induced conversion of somatic cells into hair cells, in collaboration with Thomas Schimmang (IBGM, CSIC-UVA).

• Las Neurociencias y las Letras.

This project is oriented towards exchanging blending Neurosciences and the Liberal Arts. It is centered mostly on the dissemination of a neuroscientific and evolutionary perspective of the mind, art and knowledge. It is addressed to the Spanish-speaking community and developed from a website where I drop and link to articles courses and other activities.

Selected publications 2017-18

Ear development

• Duran-Alonso MB, Lopez Hernandez I, de la Fuente MA, Garcia-Sancho J, Giraldez F, Schimmang T (2018) Transcription factor induced conversion of human fibroblasts towards the hair cell lineage. PLoS One. 2018 Jul 6;13(7) https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0200210

• The Repression of Atoh1 by Neurogenin1 during Inner Ear Development. Gálvez H, Tena JJ, Giraldez F, Abelló G. (2017) Front Mol Neurosci. 2017 Oct 20;10:321. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnmol.2017.00321/full

Neuroscience and Humanities:

• Giraldez, F. (2017) Sobre “I of the Vortex: From Neurons to Self”, de Rodolfo Llinás En Manual de Linternas, Libros y Literatura SL, Madrid, 2017, Ed. Marta Magariños https://lasneurocienciasylasletras.blog/neurociencia-y-filosofia/sobre-i-of-the-vortex-from-neurons-to-self-de-rodolfo-llinas/.

• Giraldez, F. (2018) Music, maths, language... and the brain. Mapping Ignorance, https://mappingignorance.org/2018/05/02/music-maths-language-and-the-brain/.

• Giraldez, F. (2018), Ver para ver, pero no solo “tabula rasa” en la corteza visual. Cuadernos de Cultura Científica https://culturacientifica.com/2019/01/13/ver-para-ver-pero-no-solo-tabula-rasa-en-la-corteza-visual/ - comments.

Other relevant information 2017-18

• La irresistible atracción del arte. Keynote in III Foro Cultura y Empresa, Auditorio Telefónica, Madrid, March 2018.

• Ciencia y creencia: Platón, la religión y las neurociencias. Plenary talk, Instituto de Humanidades Francesco Petrarca, Madrid, November 2018.

• Las moléculas que nos comemos. Museo de la Ciencia, Madrid, Semana de la Ciencia November, 2018.

• Neurosciences for the Humanities (teaching neuroscience as a liberal art), in GUNi meeting Barcelona, November, 2018.

• Research guest at IIB (CSIC-UAM), Madrid, Oct-Dec 2018.