Yari Giménez Martínez

After graduating from the University of Alcalá de Henares in Biology within the specialization of biomedicine, Yari did an internship within the university itself as a research assistant in the department of biomedicine. After this, he obtained the title of superior technician in research laboratory, which allowed him to do a one-year internship at CIEMAT (National Center for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research). These internships allowed Yari to apply for a doctoral thesis under the supervision of Dr. Susana Navarro Ordóñez.             

During the last five years he has done his doctoral thesis in the field of gene therapy applied to rare diseases. Within these diseases, he have focused on Blackfan-Diamond anemia, for which a deep characterization of the patients was carried out together with the development of a gene therapy protocol based on lentiviral vectors for the treatment of this disease.

During this time he has acquired knowledge in the main techniques of molecular and cellular biology, flow cytometric analysis, the production of lentiviral supernatants, cell cultures of both cell lines and primary derived from patients, as well as the necessary knowledge for the management of laboratory animals for experimentation. All this applied knowledge allowed him to develop a gene therapy protocol for the correction of cells from patients with Blackfan-Diamond anemia.

Throughout this work, results are shown that support the efficacy and safety of the proposed gene therapy approach and that have served to obtain the orphan drug designation from the European Drug Agency (EMA) for the treatment of Blackfan-Diamond anemia (orphan designation: EU/3/21/2519.). Additionally, an international patent has been filed to protect this development (assigned application number PCT/ES2021/070343). 

Once he obtained his doctorate, he did a master's degree in clinical trial monitoring and medical affairs, which allowed him to spend time at Novartis in their medical department. There he was able to obtain a much more complete vision of phase II and III clinical trials, as well as the functioning of an international company.

In the year 2023 he obtained a permanent position as a Senior Graduate, within the framework of the stabilisation of temporary employment, at the National Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT). In this post-doctoral stage, he is developing the optimisation, both preclinical and clinical, of the gene therapy trial for the treatment of Blackfan Diamond Anaemia.

ORCID: 0000-0002-8936-0007

Publications:

1.- Yari Giménez, Manuel Palacios, Susana Navarro. 2024. Lentivirus-mediated gene therapy corrects ribosomal biogenesis and shows promise for Diamond Blackfan anemia. Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight.

2.- Julián Sevilla, Susana Navarro, Paula Rio, Rebeca Sánchez-Domíngue, Josune Zubicaray, Eva Gálvez, Eva Merino, Elena Sebastián, Carmen Azqueta, José A Casado, José C Segovia, Omaira Alberquilla, Massimo Bogliolo, Francisco J Román-Rodríguez, Yari Giménez, Lise Larcher, Rocío Salgado, Roser M Pujol, Raquel Hladun, Ana Castillo, Jean Soulier, Sergi Querol, Jesús Fernández, Jonathan Schwartz, Nagore García de Andoín, Ricardo López, Albert Catalá, Jordi Surralles, Cristina Díaz-de-Heredia, Juan A Bueren. Improved collection of hematopoietic stem cells and progenitors from Fanconi anemia patients for gene therapy purposes. Methods & Clinical Development. Molecular Therapy, 04/06/2021.

3.- María José Pino-Barrio; Yari Giménez Martínez; Mariela Villanueva; Marcus Hildenbeutel; Rebeca Sánchez Domínguez; Sandra Rodríguez Perales; Roser Pujol; Jordi Surrallés; Paula Río; Toni Cathomen; Claudio Mussolino; Juan Antonio Bueren. TALEN mediated gene editing in a mouse model of Fanconi anemia. Scientific Reports. Nature, 24/04/2020.

4.- Paula Río; Susana Navarro; Wei Wang; Rebeca Sánchez Domínguez; Roser M Pujol; José C Segovia; Massimo Bogliolo; Eva Merino; Ning Wu; Rocío Salgado; María L Lamana; Rosa M Yáñez; Jose A Casado; Yari Giménez Martínez; Francisco J Román Rodríguez; Lara Álvarez; Omaira Alberquilla; Anna Raimbult; Guillermo Güenechea; M.Luz Lozano; Laura Cerrato; Miriam Hernando; Eva Gálvez; Juan Bueren; Julián Sevilla. Successful engraftment of gene-corrected hematopoietic stem cells in non-conditioned patients with Fanconi anemia. Nature Medicine. Nature, 25/09/2019.