Manel Esteller

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION
Since October 2008, Dr Esteller is the Director of the Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program (PEBC) of the Bellvitge Institute for Biomedical Research (IDIBELL) in Barcelona, Leader of the Cancer Epigenetics Group, Professor of Genetics in the School of Medicine of the University of Barcelona, and an ICREA Research Professor.

EDUCATION AND BACKGROUND:
Manel Esteller (Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, 1968) graduated in Medicine with Honours from the Universidad de Barcelona in 1992, where he also obtained his PhD degree specialising in molecular genetics of endometrial carcinoma, in 1996. He was an Invited Researcher at the School of Biological and Medical Sciences at the University of St Andrews (Scotland, UK) during which time his research interests focused on the molecular genetics of inherited breast cancer. From 1997 to 2001, Dr Esteller was a Postdoctoral Fellow and a Research Associate at the Johns Hopkins University and School of Medicine, (Baltimore, USA) 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 October 2001 to September 2008 Manel Esteller was the Leader of the CNIO Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory, where his principal area of research was the alterations in DNA methylation, histone modifications and chromatin in human cancer.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:
Author of more than three hundred original peer-reviewed manuscripts in biomedical sciences, he is also a Member of numerous international scientific societies, Editorial Boards and reviewer for many journals and funding agencies. Dr Esteller is also Associate Editor for Cancer Research, The Lancet Oncology and Carcinogenesis, Editor-in-Chief of Epigenetics and President of the Epigenetics Society.

AWARDS:
His work has received, among other, the Best Young Cancer Researcher Award by the European School of Medical Oncology (1999), First Prize in Basic Research at the Johns Hopkins University and Medical Institution (1999), Best Young Investigator Award from the European Association for Cancer Research (2000), Carcinogenesis Award (2005), Beckman-Coulter Award (2006), Fondazione Piemontese per la Ricerca sul Cancro (FPRC) Award (2006), Swiss Bridge Award (2006), Innovation Award from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (2007), Human Frontier Science Program Award (2007), DEbiopharm-EPFL Award (2009), Dr Josef Steiner Cancer Research Award (2009), Lilly Foundation Preclinical Biomedical Research Award (2009), World Health Summit Award (2010), National Award in Genetics (2011) and European Research Council Advanced Grant (2011).

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
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.

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