Simón Méndez-Ferrer gained his PhD in 2004 from The Department of Medical Physiology at the University of Seville in Spain. From 2004-2009, he worked as a post-doc at New York Medical College and Mount Sinai School of Medicine.Simón moved to Cambridge in 2015, where he is Professor at the Department of Hematology (University of Cambridge), Group Leader at the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and PI at NHS Blood and Transplant. His research has revealed multisystem regulatory mechanisms by which the haematopoietic stem cell niche controls normal and malignant haematopoietic stem cells. His work has been recognised with ~20 Plenary presentations, >200 invited talks, international awards (ASH Scholar Award, Joanne Levy Memorial Award, HHMI International Early Career Scientist, CRUK Programme Foundation Award, ERC Consolidator grant, etc), publications in top journals (Nature etc) and 3 patents. His translational research led to two Phase-II multicenter clinical studies testing the redeployment of drugs to modulate the bone marrow stem-cell niche in myeloproliferative neoplasms. Ongoing efforts in his lab are targeting the microenvironment to improve bone marrow transplantation procedures and as a complementary therapeutic target for the treatment of myeloid malignancies.