Dr. Agustín Ruiz Laza is the current Director of the Biological Core at the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases and holds the Keith M. Orme and Pat Vigeon Orme Endowed Chair in Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX, USA. He is also the Non-executive Research Director of ACE Alzheimer Center Barcelona (Spain) and Principal Investigator of the Networked Biomedical Research Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Ministry of Health of Spain – CIBERNED/ISCIII). He earned an M.D. and Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of Seville.
Dr. Ruiz has held significant roles, including co-founding several biotech companies. He has received numerous awards for his contributions to biotechnology and Alzheimer’s research. His publication record includes 254 articles and 180 preprints/abstracts. He has secured funding for more than 40 competitive research projects and contributed to the application of genomic technologies in medicine and the discovery of genetic factors of dementia and other human conditions.
Agustín is an involutionary board sports athlete. As a teenager he was a fanatic regular skater and surfer. Then, when physical conditions declined, he moved to bodyboarding and bodysurfing. Currently, he is a paddle surfer, also referred to as “surfing for plus-sized individuals” by his three lovely sons.