The Newpaper El Mundo ranks the IDIBELL researcher Manel Esteller as one of the most influent health professionals in Spain of 2011. Other relevant personalities of the ranking are Joan Rodés, Josep Baselga and Anna Veiga.
Manel Esteller is the Director of the Cancer Epigenetics and Biology program of IDIBELL, ICREA (Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies) research professor and associate professor at the University of Barcelona. Before joining IDIBELL, Esteller led the Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO).
Doctor of Medicine from the University of Barcelona, Dr Esteller is the author of over two hundred scientific articles, member of numerous international scientific societies and editorials, and editor of several publications. Currently holds the position of president of the Epigenetics Society.
Born in Sant Boi de Llobregat-Barcelona in 1968, Manel Esteller is an international leader in the field of epigenetics. He graduated in Medicine at the University of Barcelona in 1992, he made his phD in 1996 with a thesis on the molecular genetics of endometrial carcinoma. From 1997 to 2001 he did postdoctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA), where he studied the relationship between DNA methylation and cancer. In fact, his work has been crucial to demonstrate that all human cancers have in common a specific chemical alteration: the hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes.
His contributions, of considerable originality, help to revise and supplement scientific paradigms thought to be well established, demonstrating the importance of external factors in the direct modification of genes with effects on regulation. His scientific work, very wide despite his youth, shows how epigenetic modifications of genetic material may contribute to the development of aging and cancer. It has also provided the basis for the recent approval of some antitumor drugs and opens the way to know the human epigenome, an international project in which Esteller has an important role. The supplement of El Mundo emphasize the outstanding contribution of Manel Esteller in this project.