Graduate in Biology from Complutense University, Madrid, in 1989. He wrote his doctoral thesis at the Ramón y Cajal Institute (Superior Science Research Council, CSIC) on the influence of the proteins of the extracellular matrix on neuronal differentiation, and he was awarded his Doctorate by the Autonomous University, Madrid, in 1994. After a one-year postdoctoral stay in the laboratory of Dr. Rodríguez-Tébar in the Ramón y Cajal Institute, working on the effect of neurotrophins on neurogenesis and the apoptosis associated with neuronal differentiation, he moved to Germany in 1996. There he undertook a postdoctoral stay in the Neurobiochemistry Department of the Max-Planck Neurobiology Institute, directed by Professor Yves-A. Barde. During the two and a half years that he stayed there, Dr. Frade performed studies of the induction of neuronal apoptosis mediated by the NGF neurotrophin through its receptor p75NTR, and his work is now an obligatory reference in this subject.

At the end of 1998, Dr. Frade returned to the Ramón y Cajal Institute with a Reincorporation Contract, where he continued his studies on apoptosis due to NGF and its relationship with the reactivation of the cell cycle of neurones in the process of differentiation.

In August, 2000, Dr. Frade obtained a post of Tenured Scientist in the Ramón y Cajal Institute and in 2008 he was promoted to Scientific Researcher. His work currently centres on the study of the role of tetraploid neurones in the normal and pathological working of the brain. Dr. Frade is the author of more than 40 scientific publications, many of them in highly prestigious journals such as Nature, PNAS and Neurone, and has been cited almost two thousand times. He also holds two patents, and is a member of several international scientific associations.

Scientific production

• Article published in Journals: 5
• Communications in national congresses: 7
• Communications in international congresses: 3