Antonio Postigo

Antonio Postigo

Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer

Life & Medical Sciences

CURRENT POSITION:

* ICREA Professor of Life and Medical Sciences. IDIBAPS (Barcelona)

* Adjunct Visiting Professor, JG Brown Cancer Center, Univ. of Louisville School of Medicine (USA)

IMMEDIATE PREVIOUS POSITION:

* Special Fellow & Instructor. Washington University School of Medicine (USA)

RESEARCH FUNDING:

* Public Agencies: European Commission / Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities / Catalan Agency for University and Research Grants (AGAUR)

* Private Foundations: Leukemia Research Foundation / Duchenne Parent Project Association / AVON Breast Cancer Campaign / Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) / La Marató de TV3 Foundation / Olga Torres Foundation / La Caixa Foundation / Catalan Academy of Medical and Health Sciences


Research interests

Our group studies molecular mechanisms regulating cell plasticity in health and disease with a particular focus on transcriptional regulation. Ongoing projects investigate gene regulation in inflammation, cancer initiation and progression, stem cell determination and differentiation, and tissue injury and regeneration. We use a wide range of technical approaches that include conditional transgenic mice, ex vivo culture and manipulation of normal and malignant primary cells, differentiation of human embryonic stem cells, and high-throughput techniques (e.g., RNAseq, proteomics). As molecular models, we use the EMT transcription factors ZEB1 and ZEB2 that play key roles in the regulation of cell plasticity.

Selected publications

– Siles L, Ninfali C, Cortes M, Darling DS & Postigo A* 2019, ‘ZEB1 protects skeletal muscle from damage and is required for its regeneration‘, Nature Communications. 10:1364. (*corresponding author). Impact Factor: 12.3

– de Barrios O, Sanchez-Moral L, Cortés M, Ninfali C, Profitós-Pelejà N, Martinez-Campanario MC, Siles L, del Campo R, Fernández-Aceñero MJ, Darling DS, Castells A, Maurel J, Salas A, Dean DC & Postigo A * 2019, ‘ZEB1 promotes inflammation and progression towards inflammation-driven carcinoma through repression of the DNA repair glycosylase MPG in epithelial cells‘, Gut. 68:2129-41. (* corresponding author). Impact Factor: 17.9. Highlighted by the journal in a video Abstract


Selected research activities

1) Director of Ph.D. dissertations that were defended during 2019: 2

Lidia Sanchez Moral (Univ of Barcelona), awarded in November 2019

Chiara Ninfali (Univ of Barcelona), awarded in December 2019

 

2) Grant Evaluations for international agencies during 2019: 3

Independent Research Fund, Denmark

Swiss Science National Foundation, Switzerland

Institut National du Cancer, France