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Dr. Salvador Aznar Benitah. Credit: Cell Press.
 07.11.2024

Dr. Salvador Aznar Benitah recognized as one of the ’50 Scientists that Inspire’ by Cell Press

Dr. Salvador Aznar Benitah, ICREA research professor and head of the Stem Cells and Cancer Laboratory at IRB Barcelona, based in PCB, has been selected as one of Cell Press’s “50 Scientists that Inspire”. This recognition comes as a result of his paradigm-shifting work in cancer metabolism and aging research. 

Dr. Aznar Benitah’s life and career span research focuses and continents—and began in Montreal, Canada, where he was born. He moved to Spain with his family at six and then lived and studied in Madrid before returning to Canada, where he earned a BSc in biochemistry with honors from McGill University in 1998. His doctoral studies brought him back to Spain, and he completed a PhD at the Biomedical Research Institute (IIBM) in Madrid in 2003.

In 2007, after completing his postdoctoral work in Fiona Watt’s laboratory at the London Research Institute, Dr. Aznar Benitah established his own lab at the Center for Genomic Regulation as a junior ICREA researcher. In 2014 he was promoted to ICREA research professor and moved IRB Barcelona as a senior researcher.

Dr. Aznar Benitah heads the Stem Cells and Cancer Laboratory at the IRB Barcelona. His team’s work aims to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying adult stem cell function during homeostasis, aging, and cancer, with special interests in epigenetics, spatiotemporal regulation of stem cells (circadian rhythms), and the link between metastasis and their epigenetic and metabolic mechanisms of function.

» Link to the Dr. Aznar Benitah interview by Cell Press at the IRB Barcelona website [+]