Francisco Sánchez-Madrid has had a long research and teaching career and has contributed to the progress in research in the field of Immunology.  He has been working on the identification of the cell adhesion and activation molecular receptors involved in leukocyte responses, and currently, on the mechanisms of leukocyte intercellular communication. Sánchez-Madrid is Professor of Immunology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Head of the Immunology Department at the La Princesa Hospital in Madrid. He obtained his Ph.D. in Sciences in 1980 and completed a postdoctoral stage at Harvard Medical School. He has been an Immunology Professor since 1990. He has been an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) since 1996, and has served as a member of the Editorial Board of the European Journal of Immunology.