On Tuesday 10 June the British Spanish Society welcomed eminent Spanish Scientists Irene Miguel-Aliaga, Oscar Marín and Carola García Vinuesa to an event hosted by the Spanish Ambassador at his residence in London.

Members of the scientific community, trustees and former BritishSpanish Society scholarship winners gathered to celebrate the contributions of Professors Miguel-Aliaga, Marín and Garcia Vinuesa, all elected Fellows of the Royal Society, to science in the UK, Spain and internationally.

In his welcoming address Mr José Pascual Marco, Ambassador of Spain to the UK, spoke of his pride of the relationship between Spain and the UK in creating opportunities for scientists.

Juan Reig Mascarell, Vice-Chair of the BritishSpanish Society, congratulated the panel members on their election as Fellows of the Royal Society, and contributions to science, and spoke of his pride in the Society’s Scholarship Programme, and charitable mission, to support and connect young researchers.

Each of the scientists gave a brief introduction to their careers, and to their different areas of research.

Oscar Marín was unable to attend in person, but appeared via a pre-recorded conversation with president of the Spanish Researchers Association 

His laboratory investigates the development of the cerebral cortex in health and disease, and our research largely focuses on cortical interneurons. The cerebral cortex is one of the most complex neuronal systems in the brain, and much of this complexity emerges from the interaction of two distinct neuronal types: glutamatergic projection neurons and GABAergic interneurons. This research may contribute to understanding the aetiology of some of the most devastating psychiatric disorders, such as autism or schizophrenia.

He is a Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Centre for Developmental Neurobiology at King’s College London. There, he leads a multidisciplinary research group investigating the development and function of the mammalian cerebral cortex, the brain’s largest and most complex structure. 

He also leads the Department of Developmental Neurobiology and the MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, which manages the MRC PhD Fellowship Programme.

He regularly engages with the community outside of science through media interviews and offering input to science policy and public awareness forums.

Professor Marín expressed his disappointment that Brexit had hampered the collaboration between scientists in the UK and Spain, and his hope that the situation would improve.

Carola Garcia Vinuesa is a Royal Society Wolfson Fellow, Principal Group Leader and Professor of Immunology at the Francis Crick Institute. 

Carola has discovered novel T cell subsets that control B cell responses – follicular helper T cells (Tfh) and follicular regulatory T cells (Tfr cells) – as well as the mechanisms by which they regulate antibody responses and limit autoimmunity. Her recent discoveries are connecting genetic variation in humans to autoimmune diseases like lupus and illuminating disease pathogenesis. 

She obtained a medical degree at the University Autonoma of Madrid (1993), undertook clinical training in the UK, and was awarded a PhD by the University of Birmingham (2000). 

As a Wellcome Trust International Research Fellow, she did postdoctoral work at the Australian National University (ANU), where she became a group leader (2006), Professor of Immunology (2010), and Head of Department (2011). 

In 2014 she founded and co-directed the Centre for Personalised Immunology, an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence, as well as a sister Centre in Shanghai Renji Hospital.

In late 2021, she became a Royal Society Wolfson Fellow and Assistant Research Director at The Francis Crick Institute (London, UK). She is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London (FRS), the Australian Academy of Science (FAA), the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science (FAHMS) and the UK Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci).

She has received several prestigious awards, including the Australian Academy of Science Gottschalk medal, the Australian Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the Year, the 2023 Lupus Insight Prize (LRA), and the Johann Anton Merck Award 2023.

Professor Garcia Vinuesa spoke passionately about investigating hard questions, her search for answers to the questions that remain around auto immunity, and the privilege of naming the ‘Roquin’ gene.

Irene Miguel-Aliaga is a Principal Group Leader and Professor of Genetics and Physiology at the Francis Crick Institute.

Irene and her team showed that the intestine is different between males and females. These sex differences impact food intake, tumour susceptibility and how the intestine communicates with other organs, including reproductive organs. More recently, they also showed that pregnancy irreversibly changes the intestine of mothers.

Irene trained as a biochemist in Barcelona and received her PhD in Genetics from the University of Oxford. She investigated how neurons develop during postdoctoral work at Harvard (USA), Linköping University (Sweden) and NIMR (UK). Irene established her own research group in Cambridge in 2008. In 2012 she moved to the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, Imperial College London, where she became a Professor of Genetics and Physiology and MRC Investigator. She joined the Crick as a Principal Group Leader in January 2024.Irene was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2019 and became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022. She was elected to the EMBO YIP programme in 2012 and to EMBO in 2017. She was also awarded the Genetics Society Mary Lyon Medal in 2022 and a Suffrage Science Women in Science award in 2018. Irene has been awarded three ERC Grants.

Professor Miguel-Aliaga spoke of her delight that her career had led her in many directions, including to the UK, but expressed hope for Spain’s future in retaining some of its home born talent.

Dr Anne O’Garra, Principal Group Leader, Laboratory of Immunoregulation and Infection at The Francis Crick Institute, led a discussion between Professors Garcia Vinuesa and Migel-Aliaga, inviting questions from the audience. Funding, collaborations, movement of scientists, and Brexit were all hot topics of discussion, with a general consensus from the room that the richness of European connection was essential to cutting edge science.

The evening ended with a reception generously supported by Codorníu, Mahou and Camino. 

The Society’s next fundraising event in support of the Scholarship Programme is its annual Summer Reception, also held at the Ambassador’s Residence in London, on 3 July.