Where I started
My earliest work in pathology, CRO studies, and preclinical systems made one thing clear: seeing disease is not the same as understanding it. That gap became the engine for everything that followed.
Research
Translational research with a clear clinical horizon.
My research identity is rooted in immune biology, molecular systems, and platform-oriented biomedical science. The through-line is simple: ask questions that can eventually change how disease is understood, measured, or treated.
MD-PhD physician-scientist focused on translating biomedical research into clinical impact. Medical training adds the clinical context needed to sharpen those questions and keep them relevant to patients.
Research Narrative
The questions, the arc, and the direction ahead.
What I studied
During doctoral training, I focused on microRNA regulation of T-cell proliferation and signaling, asking how immune cells make decisions that later shape inflammation, tolerance, and disease response.
What questions drive me
I am most interested in research that can connect mechanism to consequence: what changes in a cell, why it matters for disease, and how that insight could ultimately improve patient care.
Where I am going
Medical school is not a departure from research. It is the clinical training needed to make the next phase of translational work more relevant, better framed, and more impactful.
Focus Areas
Four pillars that define the platform.
Translational Medicine
Bridging mechanistic discovery in the lab to questions that can improve diagnosis, therapy, and patient outcomes.
The strongest biomedical research earns its value when it changes what clinicians can measure, explain, or offer at the bedside.
Immunology and Molecular Systems
Studying immune signaling, microRNA regulation, and cellular decision-making across complex disease states.
Understanding how cells switch between activation, tolerance, and dysfunction helps reveal where intervention can be most effective.
Clinical Integration
Using medical training to keep research aligned with real patients, real systems, and real unmet needs.
Clinical context sharpens scientific judgment and makes translational work more honest, relevant, and actionable.
Innovation and Future Medicine
Building platform thinking through diagnostics, biomaterials, organoids, and systems-based approaches to disease.
Future-facing medicine will depend on tools that connect biological complexity to faster, smarter decisions in care and research.
Selected Publications
Representative work.
Nature Biomed Eng · 2022 · 75 citations
Biomaterial vaccines capturing pathogen-associated molecular patterns protect against bacterial infections and septic shock.
Demonstrated that immune-instructive biomaterials can capture bacterial signals in vivo and generate protection against sepsis, highlighting a path from materials engineering to clinically relevant infection control.
Ureña F, et al. · Nature Biomedical Engineering
J Biol Chem · 2022 · 14 citations
T-cell activation decreases miRNA-15a/16 levels to promote MEK1-ERK1/2-Elk1 signaling and proliferative capacity.
Showed that activation-driven loss of miR-15a/16 releases the MEK1-ERK-Elk1 pathway and expands T-cell proliferative capacity, clarifying a tractable lever in immune regulation.
Ureña F, et al. · Journal of Biological Chemistry
J Leukoc Biol · 2022 · 12 citations
Selenoprotein I deficiency in T cells promotes differentiation into tolerant phenotypes while decreasing Th17 pathology.
Defined selenoprotein I as a regulator of T-cell fate, linking metabolic control to tolerant versus inflammatory immune phenotypes in ways that matter for immune-mediated disease.
Ureña F, et al. · Journal of Leukocyte Biology
Sci Rep · 2022 · 12 citations
Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for specific and rapid detection of Dickeya fangzhongdai targeting a unique genomic region.
Built a rapid molecular diagnostic assay for field detection, reflecting a broader interest in translational platforms that shorten the distance between measurement and action.
Ureña F, et al. · Scientific Reports
Collaboration
Open to conversations about translational research, academic mentorship, and physician-scientist development.