Joaquín Arribas

Joaquín Arribas

Vall d'Hebron Institut d'Oncologia

Life & Medical Sciences

Dr. Arribas completed his undergraduate studies in biochemistry at Univ. Autónoma de Madrid (1987). At the same university he subsequently worked on the regulation of the catalytic activities of the proteasome and received his PhD in Biology (1991). Sponsored by a fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, he joined Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York (USA), as a Postdoctoral Fellow with J. Massagué (1992-96) working on the proteolytic processing of transmembrane growth factors. In 1997 he joined the oncology department at Hospital Vall d'Hebron in Barcelona as a Staff Scientist, since then he has lead the Growth Factors research group. In 2010 he was appointed Director of VHIO´s Preclinical Research Program. In 2017, he was appointed Scientific Director of CIBERONC. His research has been recognized by EMBO Young Investigator Program Award, Beckman Coultek Award for the Best Young Spanish Investigator in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.


Research interests

  • Development of novel therapeutic strategies to treat HER2-positive tumors and identify mechanisms of resistance to current therapies.
  • Development and preclinical characterization of T cell-based therapies against HER2 positive tumors.
  • Characterization of the role of premature senescence in breast cancer progression and treatment.
  • Evaluation of the activity of novel anti-cancer therapies in breast and pancreatic cancer patient-derived xenografts.

Selected publications

– Gomez-Miragaya J, Díaz-Navarro A, Tonda R, Beltran S, Palomero L, Palafox M, Dobrolecki L, Vasaikar S, Huang C, Zhang B, Wulf G, Muñoz P, Paré L, Serra V, Prat A, Bruna A, Caldas C, Arribas J, Balmaña J, Cruz C, Pujana MA, Lewis M, Puente X, Gonzalez-Suarez E 2019, ‘Chromosome 12p amplification in triple-negative breast cancer is associated with emergent docetaxel resistance and carboplatin sensitivity’, Cancer Research, 79, 4258-4270.

– Triana-Martínez F, Picallos-Rabina P, Da Silva-Álvarez S, Pietrocola F, Llanos S, Rodilla V, Soprano E, Pedrosa P, Ferreirós A, Barradas M, Hernández-González F, Lalinde M, Prats N, Bernadó C, González P, Gómez M, Ikonomopoulou MP, Fernández-Marcos PJ, García-Caballero T, Del Pino P, Arribas J, Vidal A, González-Barcia M, Serrano M, Loza MI, Domínguez E & Collado M 2019, ‘Identification and characterization of Cardiac Glycosides as senolytic compounds’, Nat Commun. 10(1):4731

– Lambies G, Miceli M,  Martínez-Guillamon C, Olivera-Salguero R, Atanassov BS, Dent SYR, Arribas J, García de Herreros A & Díaz VM 2019, ‘TGF beta-Activated USP27X Deubiquitinase Regulates Cell Migration and Chemoresistance via Stabilization of Snail1’, Cancer Research, 79, 1, 33 – 46.

– Blasco-Benito S, Moreno E, Seijo-Vila M, Tundidor I, Andradas C, Caffarel MM, Caro-Villalobos M, Urigüen L, Diez-Alarcia R, Moreno-Bueno G, Hernández L, Manso L, Homar-Ruano P, McCormick PJ, Bibic L, Bernadó Morales C, Arribas J, Canals M, Casadó V, Canela EI, Guzmán M, Pérez-Gómez E, Sánchez C 2019, ‘Therapeutic targeting of HER2-CB2R heteromers in HER2-positive breast cancer‘, Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America, 116, 13, 6505 – 6505.