Biography

Esteban Ballestar started his career with his bachelor and masters’ degrees at the University of Valencia, Spain, where he also finished his PhD in 1987, under the supervision of Professor Luis Franco. He continued as a postdoctoral researcher in the Alan P Wolffe laboratory in the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA. On returning to Spain he worked as a senior scientist in Dr Manel Esteller’s lab at the Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO) in Madrid, Spain. In 2008 he became a senior group leader at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Barcelona, Spain. In 2019 he moved his group to the IJC. Dr Ballestar’s research interests focus on understanding the mechanisms underlying the deposition and removal of epigenetic modifications in immune cells, the influence of genetic and environmental determinants, and the acquisition of defects in the context of immune-related disease including primary immunodeficiencies, autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases. His group also investigates the impact of the epigenetic regulation of immune cells in the microtumour environment.