MANEL ESTELLER

Dr Esteller graduated in Medicine (1992) and obtained his Ph.D. in molecular genetics of endometrial carcinoma (1996). He was Invited Researcher at the School of Biological and Medical Sciences at the U. of St. Andrews, during which time his research interests focused on the molecular genetics of inherited breast cancer. From 1997 to 2001, he was Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Associate at the Johns Hopkins University and School of Medicine, where he studied DNA methylation and human cancer. His work was decisive in establishing promoter hypermethylation of tumour suppressor genes as a common hallmark of all human tumours. From 2001 to 2008 he was the Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory’s of the CNIO, in Madrid, where he studied the alterations in DNA methylation, histone modifications and chromatin in human cancer. Since 2008, Dr Esteller is the Director of the Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, in Barcelona, Chairman of Genetics in the School of Medicine of the U. of Barcelona and ICREA Research Professor. Author of more than 500 biomedical manuscripts, many of them as Highly Cited articles, he’s also associated editor for several journals and the recipient of the Swiss Bridge Award 2006, Debiopharm-EPFL Award 2009, Dr Josef Steiner Cancer Research Award 2009, Biomedical Research Award-Lilly Foundation 2009, World Health Summit Award 2010, European Research Council Advanced Grant 2011, Severo Ochoa Prize 2013, Research Award in Life Sciences Royal Academy of Natural and Physical Sciences 2013, National Award in Oncology 2014, National Research Prize of the Catalan Government 2015, Parliament of Catalona Gold Medal 2016 and the International Award of Catalonia 2016. His current research is devoted to the establishment of the epigenome maps of normal and transformed cells, the study of the interactions between epigenetic modifications and non-coding RNAs, and the development of new epigenetic drugs for cancer therapy