Immunologists, biotechnologists, pharmacologists, gastroenterologists, veterinarians, and technicians collaborate to deeply understand the mechanisms of immunobiology in advanced chronic liver disease and inflammatory bowel disease. Moreover, the involvement of researchers from different nationalities brings a global perspective and fosters the exchange of ideas, strengthening our multidisciplinary approach to tackling these complex medical challenges.
Meet our Group
___HOW WE WORK
The Lab
Our group has experience in the application of multiple molecular biology and immunology techniques for the study of liver and digestive diseases, both in experimental models and in patients.
We collaborate with international groups in different projects, both basic and translational, sharing with them our common interest in preventing or improving the prognosis of inflammatory complications associated with these diseases.
Facilities and resources
Our facilities have the necessary equipment and infrastructure to carry out the projects that finance our research activity. These resources are regularly updated to ensure the use of adequate technology and improve the quality of research results
UMH, ISABIAL and IDIBE provide facilities and research core services
CIBERehd provide structural funding for excellence research groups.
Translational Research
The main goal of our Group is translational research on advanced chronic disease and IBD
Chronic inflammation and host-microbiota interaction constitute landmarks of the gut-liver axis
We work on the restoration of immune homeostasis and eubiosis as therapeutic goals to improve the management of these diseases.
The Team
Rubén Francés has a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the Miguel Hernández University. He was a Postdoctoral Researcher between the years 2003-2005 at the Boston Medical Center, Boston, USA, and a Researcher of the Spain’s National Health System between the years 2006-2018. He is currently Professor of Immunology in the Department of Clinical Medicine at Miguel Hernández University and Head of the Hepatic and Intestinal Immunobiology Group. He is the author of numerous international publications and has coordinated competitive research projects funded by different agencies continuously since 2006. His main line of research focuses on the immunobiology of bacterial translocation and inflammation in the gut-liver axis, with a multidisciplinary approach aimed at understanding the interaction between the microbiome and the Immune System and identifying new potentially useful targets in the recovery of homeostasis in advanced chronic liver disease and in inflammatory bowel disease.
Rubén enjoys traveling, listening to music and practicing his favorite sport, tennis.
ORCID: 0000-0001-5105-1201
Esther Caparrós graduated in Biology in 1998 at the University of Alicante. She worked in the Department of Clinical Medicine of the Miguel Hernández University, in the Biological Research Center of Madrid and in the Department of Biochemistry and Immunology of the University of Murcia, where she received his doctorate in Immunology in 2005. From 2005 to 2009 she worked in the Neuroscience Institute of Alicante as a postdoctoral researcher. She obtained a scholarship to work at the MRC-LMB in Cambridge in 2008 and stayed at the Centro de Estudos de Doenças Crónicas (CEDOC) in Oeiras, Portugal, in 2013. She joined the Department of Clinical Medicine as Professor of Immunology in 2009. She has collaborated with different research groups, and since 2015 she is part of the Hepatic and Intestinal Immunobiology Group of the Miguel Hernández University.
Her main line of research focuses on understanding inflammation in the gut-liver axis, with a multidisciplinary approach aimed at understanding the interaction between the microbiome and the Immune System and identifying new potentially useful targets in the recovery of homeostasis in chronic liver disease and in inflammatory bowel disease.
Esther really likes music, reading and playing sports in her spare time.
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9681-0408
Pedro Zapater has a PhD in Medicine and Surgery from the Autonomous University of Madrid. He is currently Professor of Pharmacology in the Department of Pharmacology, Pediatrics and Organic Chemistry at Miguel Hernández University and Head of the Clinical Pharmacology Section of the General University Hospital Dr. Balmis in Alicante. He is the author of numerous international publications and has coordinated competitive research projects funded by different agencies continuously since 2005. His main line of research focuses on the study of the immunoregulatory activity of the autonomic nervous system and its relationship with chronic inflammatory processes such as advanced chronic liver disease, as well as the study of drugs capable of modulating this activity.
Pedro enjoys walking, reading and watching movies at the cinema.
ORCID: 0000-0001-7927-858X
Ana Gutiérrez has a PhD in Medicine and Surgery from the Miguel Hernández University. She is currently Head of Section and Head of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Unit in Gastroenterology Department at General Hospital of Alicante. She is currently vice-president and national teaching coordinator of the Spanish Working Group on Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis (GETECCU), becoming president of the group in October 2022. She is the author of numerous international publications, and her research activity focuses on the immunobiology of bacterial translocation and inflammation in inflammatory bowel as well as other clinical settings as epidemiology, sexuality, and sexual dysfunction in IBD.
Ana enjoys traveling and spending free time with family and friends.
ORCID: 0000-0002-5460-4139
Isabel Gómez-Hurtado has a degree in Veterinary Medicine from the Murcia University since 2002. She worked as a clinical veterinarian for 7 years, but in 2009 her career took a turn and she began in the biomedical research world. She has a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the Miguel Hernández University, and is currently contracted by the Liver and Intestinal Diseases Network Biomedical Research Center, being responsible for the work with experimental animals in the Liver and Intestinal Immunobiology Group. She is the author of numerous international publications and has directed two competitive research projects at national and regional level.
Isabel is passionate about animals, and enjoys spending her free time with her family, especially her two little girls.
ORCID: 0000-0003-4305-9427
Sebastián Martínez-López studied a Bachelor Degree in Medicine from 2011 to 2013 and a degree in Biotechnology from 2013 to 2017 at the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) obtaining the ‘Premio extraordinario del grado’ in the latter. After finishing a MSc. in Neuroscience (UMH-CSIC) in 2018 he worked as a researcher coordinating several projects in the Neuroendocrine Tumors group at ISABIAL until early 2020. After that he enrolled the hepatic and intestinal immunobiology group where he is currently conducting a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology financed by the Ministry of Universities through a ‘FPU’ fellowship (FPU19/03460). His main focus of research consists on dissecting the cellular mechanism driving LSECtin expression, a C-type Lectin with immunomodulatory potential, in the context of advanced liver disease.
Sebas loves to eat, rock music and reading, but above all, climbing.
ORCID: 0000-0003-1720-845X
Bachelor Degree in Biotechnology (2015-2019) and MSc. In Biotechnology and Bioengineering (2019-2020) both titles obtained at Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche (UMH). Enrique Ángel Gomis is currently Research Staff at UMH, hired as Predoctoral Researcher at Hepatic and Intestinal Immunology Group after being awarded beneficiary of the Predoctoral Researchers’ Hiring Grant Programme (ACIF/2021/026) of Generalitat Valenciana. The investigation line in which his thesis is developed, associated to the Molecular and Cellular Biology PhD Programme, mainly studies hepatic immunobiology during the progression of chronic hepatic disease, specifically investigating epigenetic regulatory mechanisms involved in the expression of protein LSECtin: a lectin with an important immunomodulatory effect that plays a pivotal role in T cell activity restriction in the course of hepatic damage.
Interested in science since a kid due to his innate curiosity, Enrique is an energic, attentive and reliable person who loves doing sport, reading and listening to music.
ORCID: 0000-0003-0736-7625
Paula is Clinical Diagnostic Laboratory Technician. After her intership training with the Translational Neuropsychopharmacology group of the Institute of Neuroscience in 2017, Paula began working for the ISABIAL Foundation 2018 – 2021 (University General Hospital of Alicante) in the CIBERehd Department (Network Biomedical Research Center) collaborating in several research projects related to the thematic area of Liver and Digestive Diseases.
Currently she is working as research staff for the Miguel Hernández University through a grant from the PROMETEO program for research groups of excellence (PROMETEO/2021/033) and collaborating externally in the IBIMED Association to support active research projects in the research group of Hepatic and Intestinal Inmunobiology of the Department of Clinical Medicine of the UMH.
In her free time, Paula enjoys a good book on the beach, travelling and spending time with her Friends and family.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2857-9790
Oriol Juanola graduated in Biotechnology (2010-2014) and has a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology (2015-2020) from the Miguel Hernández University. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher (2020-2023) in Laboratories for Translational Research at the Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (https://lrteoc.ch/hepatology-research-group-hrg/) in Bellinzona, Switzerland.
Currently, he has joined the Department of Clinical Medicine at the Miguel Hernández University as an Assistant Professor in the area of Immunology and works as a postdoctoral researcher in the Hepatic and Intestinal Immunobiology group led by Rubén Francés.
He is the author of international publications in which he has participated as a PhD student or postdoctoral researcher. His main line of research focuses on the study of the intestine-liver axis in the context of chronic liver disease.
He has also gained experience in the immune characterization of the inflammatory response, as well as in the study of the contribution of the intestinal microbiota to the progression of inflammatory-based digestive diseases.
Oriol enjoys reading, traveling, and spending his free time with family and friends.
Manel C. Hadid earned her bachelor’s degree in Health Biotechnologies and her master’s degree in Biotechnology and Molecular Pathologies from the University of Boumerdes, graduating at the top of her class in both programs. In 2024, she completed a second master’s degree in Biotechnology and Bioengineering at the Universidad Miguel Hernández in Elche, Spain.
She is currently a PhD researcher in the Hepatic and Intestinal Immunobiology Group, where her research focuses on the modulation of interactions between liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) and T cells through the overexpression of LSECtin during cirrhosis.
Outside of her academic career, Manel is passionate about reading, sports, and learning new languages. Her relentless curiosity and love for knowledge drive both her professional and personal pursuits.
ORCID: 0009-0002-2907-1980
Liang Hong graduated from Dalian Medical University in China and is currently working in the Department of Gastroenterology at the Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University. His research primarily focuses on the treatment of intestinal strictures in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). He has developed expertise in colonoscopy diagnosis and treatment techniques and is now concentrating on the biological immunotherapy of intestinal strictures in IBD patients.
To further his work, Liang Hong pursued opportunities in Alicante, where he is engaged in Ph.D. studies and IBD-related immunological experiments. He successfully applied for a scholarship from his hospital to support his continued research and training.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4870-6099
Benedikt Simbrunner obtained their MD from the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, in 2018, followed by a PhD from the same institution (2018–2024), earning the prestigious distinction of Promotio sub auspiciis Praesidentis rei publicae.
Currently, he serves as a clinical resident in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine III, Medical University of Vienna. In addition, he is a postdoctoral researcher at the Vienna Liver Study Groups, Medical University of Vienna, and a research fellow with the Hepatic and Intestinal Immunobiology Group at the Universidad Miguel Hernández, San Juan de Alicante, Spain.
Their research focuses on understanding the disease-driving mechanisms of advanced chronic liver disease (ACLD), with a particular interest in systemic inflammation, immune dysfunction, gut-liver crosstalk, and bacterial translocation. Combining a medical and research background, Benedikt conducts translational studies to bridge basic science and clinical practice, aiming to uncover key mechanisms influencing the progression of ACLD in patients.
Outside of work, Benedikt Simbrunner enjoys sports, documentaries, and history podcasts.
ORCID : 0000-0001-8181-9146
Aní Gasparyan is a researcher specializing in neuropharmacology and immunobiology. She earned a Pharmacy degree (2007–2012) and a Master’s in Neuroscience (2012–2013) from the University of Valencia, receiving multiple research scholarships. She completed her Ph.D. in Neuroscience (2017–2021) at Miguel Hernández University and was selected for the 2023 ECNP Workshop for Early Career Scientists in Nice, France.
She worked as a postdoctoral researcher (2021–2024) at the Institute of Neurosciences of Alicante (UMH-CSIC), focusing on biomarkers and pharmacological treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders. In 2024, she joined the Hepatic and Intestinal Immunobiology Research Group at UMH, studying immunometabolism in liver cirrhosis and the liver-brain axis. Since 2022, she has also been an Assistant Professor in Pharmacology, and since 2017, a member of ISABIAL.
She enjoys nature, hiking, and the arts.
ORCID: 0000-0002-9646-9975
___Former Lab Members
Students who completed their PhD with us
Building the scientific career of young researches is among Group’s priorities.
Rocío Caño etiqueta
Current position: Coordinator of Clinical Trials in Rheumatology, Unit of Clinical Trials, IIS ISABIAL, Hospital General Universitario de Alicante, Alicante, Spain.
Alba Moratalla etiqueta
Current position: Nutritionist at Traumadepor, Alicante, Spain.
Irma García etiqueta
Current position: Researcher at Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, Madrid, Spain.
Paula Piñero etiqueta
Current position: Researcher at Cytometry Unit of Hematology Department, Hospital General Universitario de Alicante, Alicante, Spain.
Elena Caro etiqueta
Current position: Physician at Internal Medicine Department, Vithas Medimar Hospital, Alicante, Spain.
Cándido Alcázar etiqueta
Current position: Surgeon at Liver Transplant Unit, Hospital General Universitario de Alicante, Alicante, Spain
Oriol Juanola etiqueta
Current position: Posdoctoral Researcher at Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Bellinzona, Switzerland.
Research with us
The Group is dynamic, with permanent availability for the incorporation of new researchers through different funding opportunities by public or private agencies or entities.
Scientific meetings and events
The Group shows activity at different national and international conferences, training events and research meetings to promote collaboration and cooperative studies.
