Dr. Francia began his career by undertaking a PhD with Dr. Ian Hart at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, UK, which has since evolved into Cancer UK. After his PhD, he trained with Dr. Robert Kerbel in Toronto, Canada, on aspects of metastasis, therapies for metastatic disease, and tumor resistance to therapy. He is now Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at El Paso, where he is attempting to set up a research program that is internationally recognized for pioneering new cancer therapeutic ideas, and for generating in vivo models to help translate laboratory findings into the clinic - by developing new metastatic tumor models, and by refining those he has already established.