Dr. Josep Dalmau received his MD and PhD from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain where he also completed an internship in Internal Medicine and a residency in Neurology. He completed fellowship training in Neuro-oncology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York where he was appointed to the faculty at the completion of his fellowship. He was Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and then Professor of Neurology and Director of the Neuro-oncology Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine. He is currently ICREA Research Professor at the Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS) at Clinic Hospital in Barcelona and has appointments as Adjunct Professor of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and Guest Researcher at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, USA.

Research interests

My research is at the intersection of cancer, autoimmunity, and the nervous system with the principal theme of the comprehensive characterization of autoimmune disorders targeting brain proteins. This includes the description of novel syndromes and associated immune-mechanisms, isolation of the target antigens, and development of diagnostic tests and treatment strategies. Once the antigens are identified our studies focus on elucidating the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the immune-mediated dysfunction of the synaptic proteins, and in modeling the disorders in vivo and in vitro. A variety of techniques are used, including tissue processing, small animal surgery, confocal microscopy, molecular biology, and electrophysiology. Our findings impact multiple clinical and basic research disciplines, linking immunologic processes and neuronal events involved in memory, behavior, cognition, and neuronal degeneration.