Graduated in Science with honors from the University of Sevilla (Spain) earned a PhD working at the Center for Molecular Biology in Madrid (Spain); soon after, he joined Dr. Timothy A. Springer´s group at Harvard University (Boston, USA), where he studied the cytotoxic response of T lymphocytes and cell adhesion.
In 1985, he joined the Immunology Department at the La Princesa University Hospital (Madrid) where currently is the director. Dr. Sanchez-Madrid is author of over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles and patents with seminal contributions in several immunology disciplines including molecular mechanisms that regulate immune cell migration and adhesion, polarization, activation as well as immunological synapse during the regulation of the immune and inflammatory response.
Dr. Sanchez-Madrid has been Managing Director of the Spanish Biomedicine Plan (2001-2005), president of the Spanish Health Research Foundation (FIS) Committee on Immunology and Infectious Diseases (1998-2000), member of the European Research Council (ERC) assessment panel (2007-2010), and scientific advisor of numerous Research Institutes.
He is a full Professor and chair of Immunology at the Autónoma University of Madrid, a member of several editorial boards, and a full member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). In January 2009, he was appointed scientific director of the Health Research Institute of the La Princesa University Hospital.