M. Angela Nieto, Ph.D., is Full Professor and Head of the Developmental Neurobiology Unit at the Instituto de Neurociencias (CSIC-UMH) in Alicante, Spain. She received her PhD in 1987 from the Universidad Autónoma (UAM) in Madrid. After a postdoct at the Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas Alberto Sols (CSIC-UAM), she moved to the National Institute for Medical Research in London to work with David Wilkinson where she isolated a number of genes involved in the morphogenesis of the nervous system. In 1993, she obtained a position of Staff Scientist at the Cajal Institute in Madrid. From then on, she has led a research group interested in cell movements and adhesion in the early vertebrate embryo. Her main contribution has been the isolation and characterization of the Snail gene family, showing its role in the formation of different tissues and organs during embryonic development and how its reactivation at late developmental times or in the adult leads to several pathologies, including tumor progression, fibrosis and defects in bone development and mineralization. She was elected EMBO member in 2000 and Member of the Academy of Europe in 2009. Among others, she has received the Carmen and Severo Ochoa Prize (2004), the Francisco Cobos Foundation Prize in Biomedical Research (2005) and the Rey Jaime I Prize in Basic Research (2009). She is member of the Editorial Boards of EMBO J, EMBO reports; Current Opinion in Genetics and Development; Mechanism of Development; Gene Expression Patterns and Int. J. Developmental Biology. She is the President of the Spanish Society for Developmental Biology, a member of the Board of directors of the International Society of Differentiation and the Spanish delegate for EMBO/EMBC/EMBL.