The Intracellular Communication laboratory, which belongs to the Institute of Biotechnology of the University of Granada, is currently made up of its director, Germaine Escames, a senior researcher, Darío Acuña Castroviejo, seven PhDs and ten pre-doctoral fellows. In addition, it welcomes 3 students from the Biotechnology master's degree each year for the TIT, and several fellows from other countries to carry out research work/doctoral theses. The research work focuses on the following objectives: 
1) To study the mechanisms of action of melatonin and its metabolites, both at the level of specific membrane and nuclear receptors and receptor-independent, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions.
2) To study the oxidative mitochondrial damage that occurs in ageing, degenerative diseases, metabolic diseases and radiotherapy/chemotherapy, and to evaluate the therapeutic use of melatonin and synthetic analogues in these situations.
3) To study the role of melatonin and its metabolites in the proliferation and differentiation of adult neural stem cells and their application in cell transplantation in degenerative diseases.
4) To discover the regulation of mitochondrial function by melatonin and its metabolites. To this end, various types of studies are being carried out:
4. 1) Experimental studies, in which we use animal and cell culture models to simulate ageing (SAM mice, accelerated ageing), Parkinson's disease (C57/ BI/ 6 wild-type mice and iNOS and nNOS mutants, treated with MPTP, and PC12 cells in culture incubated with rotenone); septic shock (C57/BI/6 mice and RORalpha mutants with ileocaecal puncture or injected with bacterial lipopolysaccharide); mucositis and radiodermatitis (irradiated rats); and velular lines of head and neck cancer, melanoma, pancreatic cancer, etc.
4.2 Clinical studies, in which we evaluated the role of melatonin in counteracting oxidative damage in different clinical situations (septic shock, Duchenne disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, other mitochondriopathies, radiotherapy).

His main lines of research are as follows:

- Regulation of mitochondrial bioenergetics by melatonin.

- Evaluation of the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of melatonin and synthetic analogues.

- Chronoinflammation and ageing.

- Zebrafish as a disease model for pharmacological screening studies for the identification of new drugs.

- Melatonin and metabolites as new pharmacological tools in cancer.

- Mechanisms to prevent chemo- and radiotherapy resistance.

- Mechanisms connecting clock gene desynchronisation and mitochondrial dysfunction with muscle ageing and the appearance of sarcopenia.

- Connection between clock gene desynchronisation and mitochondrial dysfunction in chemotherapy resistance.

- Endothelial dysfunction and inflammatory and mitochondrial microRNAs as therapeutic targets to reduce cardiovascular complications in type 2 diabetes mellitus: evaluation of the effects of melatonin.

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