Javier Montenegro received his master degree (2003) and PhD (2009) from the University of Santiago de Compostela, under the direction of Prof. Susana López, working in the field of synthetic retinoids. In 2005 he was a visiting scientist in the group of Prof. Steven Ley at Cambridge University (Total Synthesis). In 2007 he was a visiting scientist at the Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla) working with Prof. Reza M. Ghadiri in prebiotic chemistry and  supramolecular dynamic polymers. In 2009 he moved to the University of Geneva for postdoctoral studies with Prof. Stefan Matile in biosensing, synthetic transport systems and controlled delivery. In 2012 he returned to Spain as a Juan de la Cierva fellow to work at the CIQUS associated with Prof. Juan R. Granja. He obtained a Ramon y Cajal contract at the Organic Chemistry Department and the CIQUS in the University of Santiago de Compostela. In 2015 he was awarded with a Starting Grant from the ERC and in 2017 with a Young Investigator Grant of the Human Frontier Science Program.