With a PhD in Genetics and postdoctoral experience in The Netherlands (Leiden University Medical Center) and Finland (Finnish Institute of Occupational Health), he set up his research team at the UAB where he is currently Full Professor of Genetics and, since January 2017, he was appointed Director of the Genetics Service at Sant Pau Hospital, Barcelona. He is Director of the Biobank of DNA Repair Syndromes, Head of the Chromosome Fragility Laboratory Service and team leader at the Center for Biomedical Network Research on Rare Diseases (CIBERER). Dr. Surrallés has supervised over 35 research grants awarded from public and private institutions world-wide summing over 4M euros and participated in clinical trials, several patents and contracts with private foundations and biotech-pharma companies. He has given tens of invited lectures in international meetings, published over 100 articles (>7200 citations and H factor: 44 by GS) and supervised >25 PhD and Master students.

Research interests

Prof. Surrallés leads an internationally competitive group in the field of cancer-prone DNA repair syndromes with a focus in Fanconi anemia and familiar breast cancer. In the last 5 years was involved in the discovery of 8 new disease genes involved in 6 cancer syndromes. He also performs advance therapeutic research in the field of DNA damage response including gene and cell therapy and drug and genetic screenings to obtain 2 Orphan Drug Designations by EMA, file 5 patents to protect therapeutic innovations in the field of DNA repair and participate in several clinical trials including gene therapy. A long term goal of Surrallés’ team is to understand the mechanisms that maintain genome stability and protect us from disease, cancer, and ageing and to translate this knowledge to develop novel therapeutic and diagnostic strategies in the fields of oncology, precision medicine and rare diseases.

Keywords

Fanconi anemia, DNA repair, Genome Instability, Rare Diseases, Hereditary Cancer, BRCA