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. In 2006, he joined CIBERER as principal investigator. He was later appointed Director of the Genetics Service at Sant Pau UAB Hospital (2017), Scientific Director of Sant Pau Hospital Research Institute (2019) and Director of the Join Unit on Genomic Medicine UAB-IR Sant Pau (2019). He has supervised 45 research grants awarded from institutions world-wide with up to >5M euros of competitive funding in the last 10 years. He has given tens of invited lectures in international meetings, published >140 publications and participated in clinical trials and multiple contracts with private foundations and biotech-pharma companies. (>10.000 citations, Hh factor=49 ) and supervised >30 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 8 years he 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. 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

Clinical genetics, genomic medicine, rare diseases, familiar cáncer, Fanconi anemia, BRCA, bone marrow failure, DNA repair, drug discovery