Dr Fernando Martinez Estrada

Biography

2016 Lecturer in Immunology, Department of Biochemical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK & Honorary Senior Research Associate, Botnar Research Centre, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology, NDORMS, University of Oxford.

2012-2016 Senior research associate, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, University of Oxford.

2006-2012 Postdoctoral researcher, Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, UK.

2000-2006 Postgraduate and PhD student, University of Milan, Italy.

Research interests

I am originally from Havana,Cuba, where I graduated as a Biochemist to then pursue a doctorate in Molecular Medicine and Immunology in Milan,Italy; I then joined Oxford University.

My main objectives in science are to understand how macrophages participate in disease pathogenesis and to identify new avenues to interfere with their deleterious properties. Macrophages are present in all tissues, numerous, and their role in inflammation is primarily controlled by modulation of their gene and protein repertoire. The transcriptome of macrophages holds the key to the fundamental question in macrophage pathobiology and inflammatory medicine: how to inactivate and reprogramme the macrophage.

My areas of expertise are macrophage cellular and systems biology (isolation-culture, gene and proteomic signatures, microarrays, proteomics, functional analysis), regulation of macrophage activation, and modern pathology. I use techniques to complement my transcriptome work, including conventional histological techniques, and modern developments such as multiple immunofluorescence histology, multiple FACS staining and Cytof. The application of the knowledge that I derive with my tools, allows reinterpretation of conventional paradigms and proposals of new ways of understanding disease and potential treatments.