Rubén Fernández-Santiago, PhD, earned an undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Oviedo in 2003 and a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Tuebingen in 2009. During his thesis dissertation at the laboratory of Prof. Thomas Gasser, he investigated the genetics of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). As a postdoctoral investigator, Dr. Fernández-Santiago joined the laboratory of Prof. Eduardo Tolosa at the University of Barcelona in 2009. Since then, he has investigated the genetics of Parkinson’s disease and of other neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Fernández-Santiago has been awarded a Marie Skłodowska Curie grant from the European Commission, a Juan de la Cierva grant from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and three research grants from MJFF as principal investigator. Between 2011 and 2013 he was the project coordinator of MJFF's LRRK2 Cohort Consortium initiative in Barcelona. In 2015 the Federación Española de Parkinson recognized his work with microRNA as publication of the year. In 2016 Dr. Fernández-Santiago was awarded a Junior Investigator Grant from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Gobierno de España) which supports the development of his own research lines as a junior principal investigator.