



Jiménez Díaz Commemorative Lecture
The Fundación Conchita Rábago annually holds the Jiménez Díaz Commemorative Lecture to distinguish the work of an outstanding international figure in medicine or biomedical research. The lecture is given in the Great Hall of the Fundación Jiménez Díaz, accompanied by prominent researchers who complement the event with a symposium.
LVI Jiménez Díaz Commemorative Lecture
Onsite – Online
Madrid, May 27, 2025. 9:00 am – 1:30 pm
Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz
Conference Room. Avda. Reyes Católicos, 2. Madrid
Prof. Ana María Cuervo
“Selective Autophagy in the fight against aging
and age-related diseases”
Professor Ana María Cuervo is a researcher and cell biologist internationally
recognized for her studies on autophagy in aging and age-related disorders,
with emphasis in neurodegeneration and metabolic disorders

Prof. Ana María Cuervo
Professor Ana María Cuervo is a researcher and cell biologist internationally recognized for her studies on autophagy in aging and age-related disorders, with emphasis in neurodegeneration and metabolic disorders.
Ana María Cuervo holds the Robert and Renee Belfer Chair for the Study of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where she is Distinguished Professor of Developmental Molecular Biology and Medicine and co-director of the Einstein Institute for Aging Research. Ana Maria studied Medicine at the University of Valencia and in 1994 she defended her doctoral thesis in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the Cytological Research Institute under the direction of Dr. Erwin Knecht. This is where she began her studies in lysosome biology and autophagy as part of her PhD. Upon completing her PhD, she conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Physiology at Tufts University in Boston in the group of Dr. Fred Dice. In late 2001, she established her own research group at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where her group continues to study cellular cleaning and recycling mechanisms and the effect that their loss of function with age has on aging and related diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and metabolic diseases.
Ana Maria Cuervo has made some of the most novel and provocative discoveries in the field of autophagy. She contributed to the discovery of chaperone-mediated autophagy, introducing for the first time the idea that lysosomal degradation can be selective and that cytosolic proteins can directly cross the lysosomal membrane. Her studies in this area led to the identification of a specialized lysosomal membrane machinery that, through a process of assembly and disassembly of a single transmembrane protein, mediated the transport of individual proteins into the lysosomal lumen. Her interest in the selectivity of autophagy was the basis for her discovery of lipophagy, a form of autophagy that selectively degrades intracellular lipid stores and which opened a completely new field on the connections between autophagy and lipid metabolism. Furthermore, she demonstrated, for the first time, the selective degradation of ciliary components (ciliophagy) and the role of primary cilia in the control of autophagy.
Her interest in the role of chaperones in autophagy led to the discovery of another novel form of selective autophagy known as endosomal microautophagy, which occurs in late endocytic compartments. Cuervo's studies on chaperone-mediated autophagy allowed her to identify, for the first time, a gradual decline in autophagy with age and demonstrate an autophagic defect in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. Her group has characterized the molecular basis of autophagic failure in different forms of Parkinson's disease, tauopathies and Huntington's disease, revealing disease-specific defects at different stages of the autophagic process.
Her group's goal is to develop therapies that restore or boost autophagy to prevent or delay the course of diseases of aging. Since 2018 her name is on the list of the Highly Cited Researchers List in Science (top 1% cited researchers).
Her group's work has been recognized with more than 20 internationally prestigious awards such as the P. Benson Award in Cell Biology, the Keith Porter Fellow in Cell Biology, the Nathan Shock Memorial Lecture Award, the Marshall Horwitz Prized, the Saul Korey Prized in Translational Medicine or the prestigious Howard Taylor Ricketts Prize. Dr. Cuervo has delivered internationally renowned lectures such as the Robert R. Konh Memorial Lecture, the NIH Director's, the Roy Walford, the Feodor Lynen, the Margaret Pittman, the SEBBM L'Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science or the Harvey Lecture, among others. Dr. Cuervo is an international corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of the Valencian Community, a member of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences and a member of the Royal Academy of Pharmacy. In 2018 she was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2019 of the National Academy of Sciences.
Executive Committee Jiménez Díaz Memorial Lecture
Chair:
Joaquín Sastre Domínguez
Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz.
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Vice Chair:
Borja Ibáñez Cabeza
Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares
Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz
Secretary:
Luis Jiménez-Díaz Egoscozábal
Despacho Jones Day
Members:
Fernando Alfonso Manterola
Fernando Alfonso Manterola
Hospital Universitario de La Princesa
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Juan Luis Arsuaga Ferreras
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Museo de la Evolución Humana de Burgos
Carmen Ayuso García
Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz, IIS-FJD, UAM
Fundación Conchita Rábago de Jiménez Díaz
Lina Badimon Maestro
Centro de Investigación Cardiovascular, CSIC-ICCC
Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau
Gorka Bastarrika Alemañ
Clínica Universidad de Navarra
Universidad de Navarra
José Luis Calleja Panero
Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Damián García Olmo
Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Pedro Guillén García
Clínicas CEMTRO
Real Academia Nacional de Medicina de España
César de Haro Castella
Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, CSIC-UAM
Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
University of California, San Diego

Katalin Karikó
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
University of Szeged, Hungary
Dennis Lo
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Domingo A. Pascual Figal
Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca
Universidad de Murcia
Silvia G. Priori
Universidad de Pavia
Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri
Pedro de Rábago González
Fundación Conchita Rábago de Jiménez Díaz
Gregorio de Rábago Juan-Aracil
Clínica Universidad de Navarra
Fundación Conchita Rábago de Jiménez Díaz
Isaura de Rábago Juan-Aracil
Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas
Rosa de Rábago Sociats
Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz
Fundación Conchita Rábago de Jiménez Díaz
Olga Sánchez Pernaute
Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz
Andrés Varela de Ugarte
Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
José Vivancos Mora
Hospital Universitario de La Princesa
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid


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2018. Prof. Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte
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2017. Prof. Jesús Egido de los Ríos (Spain)
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2016. Dr. Luigi Naldini (Italy)
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2015. Prof. Rafael Yuste (Spain)
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2014. Dr Venki Ramakrishnan (India)
"Antibiotics and the ribosome, the cell's protein factory"
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2013. Dr. Manuel Serrano Marugán (Spain)
"New frontiers in cell reprogramming"
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2012. Prof. Antonio Damasio (Portugal)
"Feelings and Sentience"

2011. Prof. José M Mato (Spain)
“Metabolism, metabolomics and the discovery of new biomarkers and medicines”
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2010. Prof. Carlos López-Otín (Spain)
“Cancer and aging: new genomic and degradomic keys”
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2009. Dr. J. Craig Venter (United States)
"Sequencing the Human Genome and the Future of Genomics"
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2008. Margarita Salas Falgueras (Spain)
DNA Replication in Model Viruses and its Application in Medicine"

2007. Francis Collins (United States)
“Genomics, Medicine and Society”

2006. Juan Rodés Teixidor (Spain)
“Hepatorenal Syndrome”

2005. Joan Massagué (Spain)
“Sociology of Our Cells and their Decontrol”

2004. Catherine M. Verfaille (United States)
“Old cells can learn new tricks: mechanisms and possible applications”

2003. SGO Johansson (Sweden)
“The discovery of IgE and impacts on allergy”

2002. Mariano Barbacid (Spain)
“Functional Genomics and Cancer”

2001. Mario R. Capecchi (United States)
“Gene targeting into the 21st Century”

2000. Norman E. Shumway (United States)
“Past, present and future of thoracic organ transplantation”

1999. Gerald M. Edelman (United States)
“Displacing metaphysics: Consciousness research and the future of Neuroscience”

1998. Manuel Serrano Ríos (Spain)
“Diabetes Mellitus: epidemiology, genes and environment”

1997. Salvador Moncada (Great Britain)
"Conjectures, Bioassay and Discovery"

1996. Valentin Fuster (United States)
“Three Mechanisms for Progress of Coronary Disease and
New Guidelines for its Therapeutic Regression”

1995. Yasutomi Nishizuka (Japan)
“Protein Kinase C and lipid mediators for intracellular signaling network”

1994. Barry M. Brenner (United States)
“Chronic Renal Disease- A disorder of adaptation”

1993. Paul M. Nurse (Great Britain)
“Eucaryotic Cell Cycle Control”

1992. Sir Roy Calne (Great Britain)
Liver Transplantation

1991. Roberto J. Poljak (United States)
“The Three-dimensional Structure, Specificity and Idiotype of Antibodies”

1990. Jean Dausset (France)
“L'Aventure HLA”

1989. Antonio García Bellido (Spain)
“Genetic Analysis of Morphogenesis”

1988. Luc Montagnier (France)
“The strategies of the AIDS virus”

1987. George E. Palade (United States)
“Control of Protein and the membrane traffic in Eukaryotic cells”

1986. Ruth Arnon (Israel)
“Basic research in Immunology and its impact on the fight against disease”

1985. Christian de Duve (Belgium)
“Lysosomes and Medicine”

1984. Francisco Grande Covián (Spain)
“Diet, Lipoproteins and Atherosclerosis”

1983. Arthur Kornberg (United States)
“Genetic chemistry and the future of Medicine”

1982. René Favaloro (Argentina)
“Myocardial Revascularization Surgery:
critical analysis of fifteen years of evolution”

1981. César Milstein (Great Britain)
“Derivation and Use of Monoclonal Antibodies”

1980. Dame Sheila Sherlock (Great Britain)
“The Immunology of Liver Disease”

1979. Osamu Hayaishi (Japan)
“Indolamine 2.3-Dioxygenase. Properties and functions”

1978. Francisco Vivanco (Spain)
"Influence of Sex and the Adrenals on Secretion of Gonadal Hormones"

1977. Sune Bergström (Sweden)
“The prostaglandins-bioregulators with clinical and economic implications”

1976. Jean Bernard (France)
L'Hematologie Geographique”

1975. Feodor Lynen (Germany)
“Multienzyme complexes involved in the biosynthesis of polycetate compounds”

1974. Donald S. Fredrickson (United States)
“Lessons about plasma lipoproteins learned from Tangier disease and other mutants”

1973. Luis F. Leloir (Argentina)
“Biosynthesis of Glycoproteins”

1972. Jan Waldestrom (Sweden)
“Depression of One Protein Forming Template”

1971. Hans A. Krebs (Great Britain)
“Inter-relation between the metabolism of carbohydrates, fat and ketone bodies”

1970. André Cournand (United States)
“The Cardiac Catheterism”

1969. Severo Ochoa (Spain)
“Polynucleotide-Phosphorylase and its Applications”
Commemorative Lessons Jimenez Diaz
