The Plenum of the Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC) has announced the addition of five new members. at the Biological Sciences section: Manel Esteller, director of the Epigenetics and Cancer Biology Program of the Institute of Biomedical Research of Bellvitge (IDIBELL); Bonaventura Clotet, head of the HIV Unit of the University Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol and director of the AIDS Research Institute IrisCaixa; Jaume Reventós, CEO of IDIBELL, and Martin Dominguez, a biologist and journalist, editor of yhe journal Method. At Philosophy and Social Sciences sections incorporates Francesca S. Segura, Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Valencia.

Manel Esteller is director of the Epigenetics and Cancer Biology Program at IDIBELL, professor of genetics at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona and ICREA research professor. His current research focuses on the establishment of the epigenomic maps of normal and transformed cells, the study of epigenetic modifications and non-coding RNAs, as well as the development of new epigenetic drugs to treat cancer. He is the author of more than four hundred articles in the field of medical science, is a member of numerous international and critical of several scientific journals scientific societies.

Jaume Reventós is CEO of IDIBELL and Professor of Molecular Biology at the International University of Catalonia. He obtained his Degree in medicine and surgery from the UAB, Medical Specialist in Biochemistry (MIR) in the Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona. He received his PhD in Cell Biology at the INSERM, Lyon, France and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Rockefeller University in New York City. Here was Assistant Professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine also in New York, before returning to Barcelona as head of the Unit for Biomedical Research and Translational Oncology at Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR). His research had focused mainly on the discovery of the molecular bases of endometrial cancer. Reventós co-founded in 2007 the company Transbiomed, spin-off emerged in the VHIR and dedicated to the research of biomarkers in cancer. He was president of the Catalan Society of Biology, subsidiary of the IEC, between 2003 and 2009.