Rafael Franco

Universidad de Barcelona. Barcelona, Spain

I am Molecular Neuropharmacologist coming with Biochemistry and Molecular Biology background. I did a first postdoc stay in the lab of Prof. Geoffrey Burnstock in UCL (Univ College London) where I get acquainted with purinergic nerves and purinergic actions. Back in Spain I founded one of the first labs in Europe devoted to the work from a molecular point of view of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Other stays abroad were: in Max Planck Institute Dortmund with Prof. Rolf Kinne, in Harvard Medical School with Prof. Cox Terhorst and in Pasteur Institute with Prof. Ara Hovanessian. In the latter I worked with HIV-1 in research on coreceptors, CD26/DPPIV among them. This protein shares with ACE2, the receptor for SARS-CoV-2, being a peptidase, a type I membrane enzyme and susceptible of shedding. My laboratory is internationally known for the discovery of GPCR heteromers and for research on their physiological relevance. We now have taken a translational approach for which we collaborate with Medicinal Chemistry laboratories in different Countries. GPCRs in our portfolio include, among other, those for adenosine, angiotensin, cannabinoids, epinephrine, orexin, dopamine and ghrelin. I have > 400 papers mainly in international journals and h index, as of August 2020, is: 75. Number of citations is circa 20,000