ORCID Research Profile
FRANCISCO CIRUELA
Position: Professor of Pharmacology
Research team
Victor Fernandez Dueñas
Associate professor
vfernandez (at) ub.edu
Maria Laura Cuffi Cheliz
Associate Professor
lcuffi (at) ub.edu
Xavier Morato Arus
Post-doctoral researcher
xavmoratoar (at) ub.edu
Jaume Taura Iglesias
Early stage researcher
jaumetaura (at) gmail.com
Marc Lopez Cano
Early stage researcher
marclopezcano (at) ub.edu
Marta Valle Leon
Early stage researcher
marta.vleon (at) gmail.com
Fahad Jibran Siyal
Early stage researcher
fahad_jibran_hbk (at) hotmail.com
Héctor Godoy Marín
Early stage researcher
hectorgodoymarin13 (at) gmail.com
Aurora Pérez Alonso
Early stage researcher
aurora-perez1993 (at) gmail.com
Salut Sánchez Rodriguez
Administrative and technical staff
salutsanchez (at) ub.edu
Consuelo Pedros Cholvi
Clinical Collaborator
cpedros (at) bellvitgehospital.cat
Contact details
Dr. Francisco Ciruela
Department of Patologia i Terapèutica Experimental
Faculty of Medicine, Av. Feixa Llarga, s/n
08907 L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Spain)
934024280
fciruela (at) ub.edu
Research Interests
The research conducted in our group is mainly focused on seeking new pharmacological strategies to reach an effective management of neurological, neuropsychiatric and pain diseases. Our aim consists of providing a deep mechanistic understanding of neurotransmitter receptors functioning which may help to design combined therapies or oligomer-tailored drugs in the near future. In addition, our interests include the development and implementation of novel biotechnological methodologies (e.g. fluorescence based biosensors, optopharmacology, etc.) that may eventually evolve into new tools for both the study and diagnostic of diseases.
Finally, our main goal is the translation of our results from the bench to the bedside and to clinical practice. Accordingly, to translate basic scientific findings into therapeutic interventions for patients we are also involved in clinical pharmacology studies, specially pharmacoepidemiological studies and clinical trials.
Current Research Lines
- Adenosine and dopamine receptor-receptor interactions in the neurobiology of schizophrenia & Parkinson’s disease
- GPCRs & ion channels oligomerization
- The Parkinson’s disease-associated GPR37 receptor: a promising target for neurological diseases
- Targeting the sigma-1 receptor: Pain and more
- GPCR Optopharmacology
Technologies / methods
- Molecular and in cell studies: Drug design, GPCR structure, BRET, FRET, TR-FRET, biosensors, real-time single cell FRET, NanoBRET, fluorescent ligands, optopharmacology, primary neuronal cultures and brain slices.
- In animal studies: Pharmacological and genetic animal models for neurological diseases and pain (i.e. Parkinson disease, Alzheimer disease, schizophrenia and Pain). Knock-out animals for GPCRs.
- In human studies: Peripheral and central biomarkers for neurological diseases.
Highlighted publications
· Font, J., López-Cano, M., Notartomaso, S., Scarselli, P., Di Prieto, P., Bresolí-Obach, R., Battaglia, G., Malhaire, F., Rovira, X., Catena, J., Giraldo, J., Pin, J.P., Fernández-Dueñas, V., Goudet, C., Nonell, S., Nicoletti, F., Llebaria, A., Ciruela, F. (2017). Optical control of pain in vivo with a photoactive mGlu5 receptor negative allosteric modulator. eLife 6, e23545.
· Sokolina, K., Kittanakom, S., Snider, J., Kotlyar, M., Maurice, P., Gandía, J., Benleulmi-Chaachoua, A., Tadagaki, K., Wong, V., Malty, R.H., Deineko, V., Aoki, H., Amin, S., Riley, L., Yao, Z., Morató, X., Rahmati, S., Kobayashi, H., Menéndez, J., Auerbach, D., Angers, S., Pržulj, N., Bouvier, M., Babu. M., Ciruela, F., Jockers, R., Jurisica, I. & Stagljar, I. (2017). Systematic interactome mapping of protein-protein interactions for clinically-relevant human GPCRs. Molecular Systems Biology 13 (3), 918.
· Ciruela, F., Fernández-Dueñas, V. & Jacobson, K.A.x (2015). Lighting up G protein-coupled purinergic receptors with engineered fluorescent ligands. Neuropharmacology 98, 58-67.
· García-Negredo, G., Soto, D., Llorente, J., Morató, X., Galenkamp, K.M.O., Gómez-Soler, M., Fernández-Dueñas, V., Adelman, J.P., Shigemoto, R., Fukozawa, Y., Luján, R. & Ciruela, F. (2014). Co-assembly and coupling of mGlu5 receptors and SK2 channels. Journal of Neuroscience 34 (44), 14793–14802.
· Ciruela, F., Vilardaga, J.P. & Fernández-Dueñas. V. (2010). Lighting up multiprotein complexes: lessons from GPCR oligomerization. Trends in Biotechnology 28 (8), 407-415.