He is currently Research Professor in the Centro de Biología Molecular del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas y de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Dr. Morata is a specialist in Developmental Biology, a scientific discipline in which he has worked for more than 40 years. He has been involved in several major discoveries: the discovery of the compartments in Drosophila, the phenomenon of cellular competition, the role of the engrailed gene in the formation of compartments, the demonstration of the structure of the bithorax complex, the phenomenon of the phenotypical suppression of the Hox genes, the genetic strategy of development of the appendices and most recently the discovery of proliferative signalling by apoptotic cells and its involvement in tumoral development.

To date he has published 130 research papers in international scientific journals, including the most prestigious ones such as Nature, Science, Cell, PNAS, etc. He belongs or has belonged to the Editorial Boards of several of the scientific journals within his speciality. He has been invited to speak about his scientific work in a great many universities and scientific institutions around the world, as well as in numerous international scientific congresses. He has directed 15 doctoral theses.