Dr. Manel Esteller graduated in Medicine from the Universitat de Barcelona, where he also obtained his Ph.D. in molecular genetics. Dr. Esteller was a Postdoctoral Fellow and a Research Associate at Johns Hopkins where he studied DNA methylation and human cancer. His work was decisive in establishing promoter hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes as a common hallmark of cancer. From October 2001 to September 2008 Manel Esteller was the Leader of the CNIO Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory, where his principal area of research were the alterations in DNA methylation, histone modifications and chromatin in human cancer. Since October 2008 until May 2019, Dr Esteller has been the Director of the Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program (PEBC) in Barcelona. He is currently the Director of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC), Chairman of Genetics in the School of Medicine of the University of Barcelona, and an ICREA Research Professor. His current research is devoted to the establishment of the epigenome maps in health and disease, and the development of new epigenetic drugs. Author of numerous and highly cited 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. He has received prestigious recognitions for his scientific achievements among them the World Health Summit Award, the Swiss Bridge Cancer Award and the EACR Cancer Researcher Award Lecture.
