Our Team
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Principal Investigator, EMERGIA Researcher
Rafael Romero Garcia, PhD
After earning a degree in Computer Engineering (2008), he completed a MSc and PhD in Neuroscience (2014). He then joined the prestigious Brain Mapping Unit at the University of Cambridge, where he studied neurodevelopment’s role in mental health. In 2017, Rafael was awarded the Guarantors of Brain Fellowship, enabling him to lead a research program investigating the potential of neuroimaging in treating tumour patients. In 2021, Rafael returned to Spain to establish a Translational Neuroimaging Lab at the University of Seville. He was appointed associate professor in 2025. Here, he leads multiple national and European projects leveragingneuroimaging and multi-omics approaches. They focus on deepening the understanding of altered brain maturation in neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia, OCD, and autism. Currently, he serves as a lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine while maintaining affiliations as a researcher and visiting lecturer at Cambridge.
Rafael has published 68 high-impact papers with over 5,000 citations. He is seeking PhD candidates interested in neuroimaging.
PHD student
Natalia Garcia San Martin
As part of her degree and master’s thesis in Biomedical Engineering, Natalia developed novel biomaterials for muscle regeneration at the Center for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering (CBIT). This experience earned her a youth fellowship under the European Social Fund, allowing her to continue her research at the FIBAO, where she further expanded her expertise in molecular biology and 3D printing. Her current PhD focuses on developing neuroimaging methods to identify neurobiological associations in psychiatric disorders. Her findings were recently published in Molecular Psychiatry (García-San-Martín et al., 2024) and presented at the 2024 OHBM conference in Seoul. Natalia is currently doing a research stay in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge.
PHD student, FPI
Claudio Alemán Morillo
After completing degrees in Civil Engineering and in Health Engineering at the University of Seville, he is currently doing his PhD focusing on better understanding atypical neurodevelopmental trajectories in psychosis. He is awarded by a prestigious FPI fellowship. With a proficiency in medical image analysis, programming, and biological system modeling, his multidisciplinary expertise contributes to advancing translational research in neuroimaging and psychosis. He is passionate about sci-fi and horror movies, mathematics, and everything related to the ’80s—a true retro fan.
PHD student
Patricia Segura
Patricia completed her undergraduate studies in Biology and earned an international MSc in Experimental and Clinical Neurosciences. Her MSc thesis carried out at IMMA Lab at Trinity College Dublin under Dr. Clare Kelly, explored the neural correlates of anxiety in children with autism. She then joined the Autism Center at the Child Mind Institute in NY, where she worked with Dr. Adriana Di Martino’s team for over 4 years. There, she investigated the connectome-based mapping of autistic symptoms in children with autism and ADHD. Patricia has contributed to several studies, including a multi-site international project on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children with neurodevelopmental conditions. She has also presented her findings at leading conferences, such as OHBM. Currently, Patricia is working on her PhD under Dr. Romero García, which aims to explore how inflammation and immune-related genetic variants shape brain structure and psychosis symptoms. Outside of research, Patricia enjoys climbing, exploring nature, and finding balance in the air with aerial silks.
PHD Student
Alessia Pasquini
Currently, as a PhD student in the Neuroimaging Lab, she designs models to capture brain developmental trajectories and collaborates closely with researchers at the University of Cambridge. She earned her Master’s degree in Cognitive Neuroscience and Clinical Neuropsychology with honors from the University of Padova. During this time, Alessia worked as a research assistant in several laboratories, exploring the infant brain. Her current efforts focus on fostering collaborative and inclusive research, with a strong emphasis on the social implications of representativeness. Outside the lab, you can often find her reading essays on current sociopolitical issues or traveling across Europe, her eyes drawn to architectural landmarks.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Chloé Gomez, PhD
With an engineering background in Health IT, her international experiences at TISSUSE GmbH (Berlin, Germany), CINV (Valparaíso, Chile), and NeuroSpin (Paris, France) have shaped her collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to science in addressing complex biological problems. Since September 2024, as a postdoctoral researcher at the Neuroimaging Lab, she has been applying her skills in computational and data-driven methods to tackle real-world challenges in mental health. She loves enigmas and challenges, dancing with gravity, and tracing paths that have yet to be imagined. When she is not suspended on a climbing wall, she still loves dancing —feet mostly on solid ground—Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing, and Waltz.
Email — LinkedIn — Github – Google Scholar
Researcher
Pablo Salguero Quiros
During his bachelor’s degree in physics, interested in biophysics and data analysis for biology, he carried out his final-year thesis on nonlinear oscillators in synthetic biology. Then, during his master’s degree in microelectronics, his thesis focused on the design of an implantable antenna with neuronal application. Since March 2025, he has been working in neuroimaging, on ResilNET, a European project exploring how brain reorganization is linked to vulnerability and resilience. Beyond work, his passions include strategy video games, football and Real Betis Balompié, as well as music, particularly the cello, which he has been playing since the age of 4. Since his little daughter Lola came into his life, he has dreamed of her developing the same passion, so that they can play melodies together.
Postdoctoral researcher
Manuel Muñoz-Caracuel, PhD
After earning a Master’s in Advanced Studies in Brain and Behavior from the University of Seville and a distance Master’s in Psychological Intervention and Mental Health Updates from the University of Madrid, Manuel completed his clinical psychology residency at the Virgen del Rocío Hospital and he practiced as consultant clinical psychologist with a
prestigious fellowship Río Hortega. He is now conducting his postdoctoral research in the group, where he is interested in better understanding psychotic symptoms in early stages of schizophrenia.
Our Alumni
Predoctoral Student
Marta Cara Sánchez
She is a final-year student of Basic and Experimental Biomedicine, curious about the human body and its functions since chilhood. Strongly interested in immunology and neuroscience, she have been doing a 4-month internship in the Neuroimaging Lab where she focuses on studying peripheral inflammation and its impact on brain structure and cognition. A great opportunitiny for her to explore brain mechanisms while developing skills in data analysis and biomedical image processing !
POSTdoctoral researcher, Juan de la Cierva
María Alemany Navarro, PhD
Psychologist by training, during her PhD, she worked at renowned biomedical centers, including the Xenomic Medicine Group in Santiago de Compostela, where she gained bioinformatics and biostatistics skills, and the Yale Child Study Center, where she worked with transcriptomic and proteomic data and observed clinical sessions with children with OCD, the focus of her thesis. She published in high-impact journals (D1 and Q1) on genomics, neuroimaging, and clinical aspects, contributed to funded research projects, and presented at international conferences. Currently, as a postdoctoral researcher in the Translational Psychiatry Research Group of the IBIS under a Juan de la Cierva 2021 fellowship, she applies her expertise in omics data to psychiatric disorders. She is co-supervised by Dr. Romero Garcia. She recently did an oral presentation in the conference World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics 2024.
Neuroimaging & Brain Networks Lab 