FEMS2017 Session Chair | EAM

Prof Francisco Juan Martínez Mojica is best known for his ground-breaking discovery of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing techniques that have triggered a revolution in biology. His fundamental work on CRISPR for more than two decades has been awarded with the Jaime I Prize in Basic Research, the Lilly Foundation Prize for Preclinical Biomedical Research, the PLuS Alliance Prize for Global Innovation and the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, among other recognitions.

He is Associate Professor of Microbiology at the Department of Physiology, Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Alicante, Spain. He graduated in Biology from the University of Valencia and earned his PhD in biology for research on the response of halophilic microorganisms to stress factors.

Francisco carried out postdoctoral research work on bacterial motility at the University of Utah, USA and on gene regulation and DNA topology at the University of Oxford, UK. In 1997, he returned to the University of Alicante to hold a faculty position as professor of Microbiology and founding the Molecular Microbiology group focused on the study of CRISPR systems.