Hector Huerga Encabo, PhD

CaixaResearch Institute

Barcelona, Spain

Dr. Hector Huerga Encabo is a researcher specializing in hematopoiesis and innate immunity. He obtained his PhD in Biomedicine from Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona), where he investigated the mechanisms regulating antiviral response. In 2019, he joined the laboratory of Dominique Bonnet at the Francis Crick Institute (London), where his research focused on clonal hematopoiesis and its impact on immune function. During his postdoctoral training, completed in late 2025, he studied how age-acquired mutations in hematopoietic stem cells influence the development and function of immune cells. This year he completed his professional dream and returned to his home city in Barcelona, to open his lab at the new CaixaResearch Institute. His group bridges hematopoiesis and immunology to investigate how somatic genetic alterations acquired with age reshape human immunity and contribute to immune dysfunction, with broader implications for inflammatory and degenerative processes across multiple tissues and physiological scenarios.