Biography

Manel Esteller (Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, 1968) graduated in Medicine from the University of 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, 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 areas of research were alterations in DNA methylation, histone modifications and chromatin in human cancer. He continued research in this field as the Director of the Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program (PEBC) in the Bellvitge Biomedical Campus of Barcelona for ten years. 

In May 2019, Dr Esteller become the Director of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC) in Badalona (Barcelona). He is also Chairman of Genetics at 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 and epitranscriptome maps for 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.

He is the author of more than 500 original publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, 24 of them categorized as “Highly Cited Paper”s by Thomson Reuters, he is among the most cited researchers in the world (top 1%) with the recognition “Highly Cited Researcher” (decade 2008-2018) by Clarivate Analytics. He is also a Member of numerous international scientific societies and Editorial Boards and a reviewer for many journals and funding agencies. Dr Esteller is also the Associate Editor for Cancer Research, The Lancet Oncology, Carcinogenesis, Genome Research and The Journal of The National Cancer Institute. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Epigenetics.

His work has received many awards including: , the Carcinogenesis Award (2005), the Beckman-Coulter Award (2006), the Fondazione Piemontese per la Ricerca sul Cancro (FPRC) Award (2006), the Swiss Bridge Award (2006), the Innovation Award from the Commonwealth of Massachussets (2007), the Human Frontier Science Program Award (2007), the DEbiopharm-EPFL Award (2009), the Dr. Josef Steiner Cancer Research Award (2009), the Lilly Foundation Preclinical Biomedical Research Award (2009), the World Health Summit Award (2010), the European Research Council Advanced Grant (2011), the “Rey Jaime I” Research Award (2013), the Severo Ochoa Award in Biomedicine (2014),  the National Award in Oncology (2014), the “Dr Josep Trueta Medal” Goverment of Catalonia (2015), the National Research Award of the Government of Catalonia (2015), the Gold Medal of the Government of Catalonia (2016), the International Award of Catalonia (2016), the Falcó Carlemany Award (2017), the Innovation in Healthcare Oncology Award (2018) and has been Elected Member of the Academia Europaea (2021).