Global PI Village "Spotlight" Series: WPIW Edition ~ Dr. Jose R. Regueiro

Name: Jose R. Regueiro

Tell us about how you learned about JMF and World PI Week! I met Vicky and Fred many years ago in Geneva and have followed their incredible efforts to build what JMF now means worldwide, including the World PI Week.

Profession and Location: I am a Professor of Immunology working in Madrid, Spain, at the Complutense University and the Hospital 12 de Octubre Research Institute. I happen to be the Head of the Department of Immunology there, and also the President of the Spanish Society for Immunology.

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What inspires you? The need to understand primary immunodeficiencies (PID) and how what we learn can in turn help patients and their families, and change our view of the immune system. Every new case is a professional challenge, but I never forget the human factor: I try to think on the patient first.

What does World PI Week mean to you? It is a time to raise awareness for PID and to celebrate how far we have reached in our understanding of their causes and what that means to patients in terms of prompt diagnosis and treatment.

What’s your favorite World PI Week memory? Last year we launched balloons with friends, students, colleagues, patients and their families. It was a magic moment, all of us looking upwards in hope of a better future, particularly for underdeveloped countries.

Favorite Expression: Put an immunologist in your life.

To Sum Up! My first contact with PID was a patient called Victor back in 1985, who presented with an extremely rare disorder which turned out to be the first T lymphocyte-specific PID to be molecularly characterized (CD3gamma deficiency). Meeting Victor changed my view of Immunology. Thirty years later, I still keep in contact with his family. Along the way I met several top-notch researchers from all over the world, such as Cox Terhorst, Balbino Alarcon, Fred Rosen, Max Cooper, Alain Fischer, Gigi Notarangelo, Chaim Roifman, Wolfgang Schamel and Jean-Laurent Casanova. I feel honoured to be a small part of the PID community, and to be helpful for patients and colleagues from all over the world.