Dr. Ibon Garitaonandia trained with Professor Jeanne Loring at the Centre for Regenerative Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute, where he was awarded a prestigious California Institute for Regenerative Medicine Postdoctoral Fellowship and collaborated with Nobel Laureates Professor Shinya Yamanaka and Professor Gerald Edelman. Dr. Ibon Garitaonandia graduated in Chemistry from the University of the Basque Country and received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Florida. He has given numerous oral presentations at international meetings including Society for Neuroscience, International Society for Cellular Therapy, and American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy.

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He has published over 60 conference abstracts, 20 peer-reviewed publications, and 2 book chapters, and is a co-inventor in 5 patents. His international memberships include the International Society for Stem Cell Research and American Chemical Society. He has taught at the National Institutes of Health sponsored Human Embryonic Stem Cell Comprehensive Training Course at The Scripps Research Institute and Chemistry, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology courses at the University of Florida, where he received a Chemistry Teaching Award.  

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Dr Ibon Garitaonandia is the new Chief Science Officer at Richmond Research Institute (RRI), where he will oversee the research projects under the direction of RRI’s Director Dr. Jorg Taubel. Dr Ibon Garitaonandia is a seasoned executive with several years of experience in research and development in academic and industry settings. Before joining RRI, he was Chief Scientific Officer at Histocell, a clinical stage biotechnology company developing cell based therapies for acute spinal cord injury (Phase 2, NCT02917291), bone regeneration (Phase 2, NCT02483364), and acute respiratory distress syndrome (Phase 1/2, NCT04289194). Previously, he was the Director of Translational Research at International Stem Cell Corporation, a Californian clinical stage biotechnology company developing stem cell-based therapies for Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury, and stroke. He received the world’s first regulatory approval to conduct a human pluripotent stem cell based clinical trial in Parkinson’s disease (Phase 1, NCT02452723).

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He has advanced cell-based therapies from early discovery to clinical translation and overseen preclinical and clinical operations. He has regulatory filing experience with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Medicines Agency (EMA), and Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).