2020_11_04_FAR_jorge_dominguez

"My professional degree program seemed to be heading towards the world of industry. After studying Pharmacy at the University of Salamanca and, later, enrolling in the Master's Degree in research, development and Medication Innovation (MIDi) of the School of Pharmacy and Nutrition, everything seemed to indicate that I would end up in some business, the most common professional outlet for graduates," explains Jorge Domínguez.

However, he had always been " researchmeat": "I liked to tinker, ask myself questions and find some answers to discover many more questions behind". Although he found the world of industry and management very interesting, Jorge confesses that he most enjoyed Master's Degree when he was taking preclinical subjects such as Pharmacology, Toxicology or Animal Experimentation, as well as during the completion of his TFM at department of Pharmacology and Toxicology.

"A priori, I did not think that the MIDi would prepare me for a research degree program , but I was very wrong. All these practical experiences were very useful for me to carry out my thesis doctoral studies. I already had experience with many of the techniques and models I was going to use later, so my adaptation to the researcher world was much easier." So much so that eight years after completing the Master's Degree, Domínguez is still working as researcher at department Internal Medicine at the Radboud University Hospital in Nijmegen (The Netherlands), and acknowledges that he owes much of the expertise he has to the training he received at the University of Navarra. "In addition, the fact of knowing the path of a drug in the development , what the passage from preclinical to clinical and subsequent pharmacovigilance consists of is a great advantage in a world researcher increasingly focused on the development of new therapies and the collaborations between business and academia, a field in which most people are not aware of the long development and the enormous investments behind the development of a drug," he explains.

For Jorge, from his professional experience, one must never stop training and learning. The MIDi was the first step to discover a wide range of tools for his professional, basic, preclinical or clinical life. "I would do it again and relive all those experiences".