fernando garcia-moreno
Group Leader
Dr Fernando García-Moreno studied biological sciences and neurobiology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). He earned his PhD at Cajal Institute and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Spain, working on the development of the neocortex with Prof. Juan de Carlos. In 2009, he joined the group of Prof. Zoltán Molnár at the University of Oxford, as a postdoc first and as junior group leader later. He investigated the evolutionary origin of the neocortex. Since 2016, he is an Ikerbasque Research Associate, and settled his group in Achucarro Basque Center for Neuroscience. His lab now focuses on the evolution of vertebrate brain development.
tatiana gallego-flores
Postdoctoral fellow
Tatiana started her scientific career in 2011 in the laboratory of Dr. Juan Botas at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston (Texas), working as a research assistant with Drosophila as an animal model for neurodegenerative diseases. Later she completed her PhD in neuroscience, focusing on the evolution of the vertebrate nervous system using the lizard Pogona vitticeps as a model organism in Dr. Gilles Laurent's group at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research (Frankfurt).
Since 2023, she has been part of the research group led by Dr. Garcia-Moreno's at the Achucarro Basque Center for Neuroscience, where she develops her career as a postdoctoral researcher supported by EMBO and a MSCA postdoctoral fellowships. She is focused on studying the developmental trends that led to the diversification of the thalamus in vertebrates.
sara jimenez
Postdoctoral fellow
Dr. Sara Jiménez holds a background in Biological Sciences and Neuroscience, having pursued her studies and obtained a master's degree in Neuroscience at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). During her time at the university, she successfully completed her PhD under the guidance of Dr. Nerea Moreno. Her doctoral research revolved around the evolutionary examination of the pallial region, involving a comparative analysis of the developmental and adult brains among various amniote and anamniote species.In 2023, Dr. Jiménez embarked on her postdoctoral journey, joining the research group led by Dr. Fernando García-Moreno at the Achucarro Basque Center for Neuroscience. Her postdoctoral position is supported by the IKUR initiative. Her current research endeavors primarily focus on the temporal regulation of neuronal fate and the cell cycle, and their significant roles in the evolution of vertebrate brains.
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Aitor Ordeñana-Manso
Predoctoral researcher
Aitor Ordeñana-Manso studied Biotechnology at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), performing an Erasmus+ program at the Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology (Bydgoszcz, Poland). He became firstly involved in evolutionary studies of the optic tectum in Brain Development and Evolution laboratory (Phylobrain) at Achucarro Basque Center for Neuroscience (Leioa, Spain). He then pursued an interuniversity master’s degree in Molecular Biology and Biomedicine at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and the University of Cantabria (UC), following his research. Later, in 2024 he began an internship at the Biofisika Institute (Leioa, Spain) in the laboratory of Dr. Cesar Martín Plágaro, working in the application of nanodiscs against the atherosclerosis. In 2025, he began his doctorate at Achucarro Basque Center for Neuroscience under the supervision of Dr. Fernando García-Moreno and Dr. Tatiana Gallego-Flores. His main interest is the evolution of the optic tectum in amniotes.
raquel rayo-morales
Predoctoral researcher
Raquel Rayo-Morales studied Biology at the University of Granada (UGR). She then pursued a master’s degree in Physiology and Neuroscience at the University of Sevilla (US), where she first became involved in evolutionary studies in the Psychobiology lab under the supervision of Cosme Salas, using goldfish as an animal model. Afterward, she returned to UGR for three years, contributing to an interdisciplinary project on bioactive compounds that affect eating behavior, working with both human and animal models.
In early 2024, she joined García-Moreno’s group as a research assistant, where her primary research interest is exploring the evolutionary history of the basal ganglia in amniotes.
ERISE PEREZ-PASCUAL
Predoctoral researcher
Erise Pérez-Pascual studied Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and then pursued a Master’s Degree in Neuroscience in the University of the Basque Country (EHU). She presented both her Undergraduate Thesis and her Master’s Thesis on the evolution of the retina in different amniote species in the Brain Development and Evolution laboratory (BDE, Phylobrain) at the Achucarro Basque Center for Neuroscience. She then focused her scientific interest towards the bioinformatic field, pursuing a Master’s Degree in Bioinformatics and Biostatistics (UOC-UB). Her second Master’s Thesis was supervised by Dr. Francisco Expósito Rincón and presented the construction of a single-cell RNA sequencing atlas of lung adenocarcinoma with driver mutations on EGFR. In 2026 she returned to the BDE Laboratory and started her PhD Thesis under the supervision of Dr. Fernando García-Moreno, studying the evolutionary divergence of the amniote thalamus under a bioinformatics focus.