Dr Javier Redondo
Javier Redondo, a distinguished researcher in leukaemia, epigenetics and cell migration and a corresponding member of the Royal European Academy of Doctors (RAED), was honoured on 19 July by Getafe City Council, in the city where he lives, on the occasion of his recent admission to the Royal Academy. The academic was received by the mayor, Sara Hernández Barroso, and the councillor for Education, Ángeles García Rodríguez, who congratulated their fellow resident on a distinction that highlights local talent. Redondo joined the RAED on 26 May at a solemn ceremony held at the headquarters of the Royal National Academy of Pharmacy of Spain in Madrid, delivering the address “The cell as an integrated unit of mechanochemical signals: the challenges of biological complexity, from tensegrity to the nucleus”, in which he explained how the cell is an integrated system in which mechanical and biochemical signals interact to regulate its function.
“The mayor of Getafe and the councillor for Education have officially received Javier Redondo Muñoz, a resident of the municipality and a group leader at the Margarita Salas Centre for Biological Research. The institutional meeting celebrates his recent appointment as a corresponding member of the Royal European Academy of Doctors, a historic milestone as he becomes the first researcher from the Spanish National Research Council to join this prestigious institution. The official reception at Getafe City Hall served to recognise the career of this distinguished local scientist,” reported the digital newspaper Getafe Central, echoing the municipal announcement.
Redondo leads the Nuclear Biomechanics and Epigenetics During Cell Migration group at the Margarita Salas Centre for Biological Research, which focuses on understanding how nuclear architecture and epigenetic regulation control the spread of leukaemia.
He is the author of more than 25 scientific publications in international journals on immunology, cell biology and cancer. He has led competitive national and international projects that have secured more than €2.2 million in funding from public agencies, foundations and international programmes. He has also supervised several doctoral theses and trained postdoctoral researchers, technicians and university students. He has been actively involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching at institutions including the Complutense University of Madrid, the University of Manchester and Francisco de Vitoria University, and has conducted scientific evaluations for national and international agencies, as well as outreach and academic-leadership activities.
Beyond his successful scientific career and the distinctions he has received, Redondo champions a research model based on debate and continuous questioning, adopting the same multidisciplinary perspective promoted by the Royal Academy as a basis for reformulation and progress. “All new scientific concepts must continue to be integrated and revisited. I should like to conclude with a quotation attributed to a historic scholar which, though probably apocryphal, perfectly illustrates that reason and discussion must prevail, as must the spirit of truth over dogma: ‘And yet it moves’ (Galileo Galilei),” the new academic concluded in his admission address.
