Salvador Aznar Benitah is a research group leader at the Institute for Biomedical Research (IRB Barcelona), where he is Coordinator of the Aging and Metabolism department. His lab aims at understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying adult stem cell function during homeostasis, ageing and cancer, with special interests in epigenetics, spatiotemporal regulation of stem cells (circadian rhythms), and the link between metastatic-initiating-cells and their epigenetic and metabolic mechanisms. Based on his work on metastasis, Salvador Aznar Benitah founded ONA Therapeutics in 2019 as a spin-off of IRB Barcelona and ICREA to develop new therapies targeted against metastasis. In 2020 ONA Therapeutics closed a 30M Series A round of investment. He is the recipient of the Banc Sabadell Award in Biomedicine (2015), Doctor Diz Pintado Award in Biomedicine (2016), Beug Foundation Metastasis Award (2015), City of Barcelona Award in life sciences (2017), National Award on life sciences (2017), the Foundation Serra Award in Life Sciences (2019), the Severo Ochoa Award (2019), the Lilliane Bettencourt Award (2020), and The Atresmedia Award in life sciences (2024). In 2018, he was appointed as an EMBO member and has received a Consolidator and an Advanced ERC grant.
Lab Website: https://www.irbbarcelona.org/en/research/salvador-aznar-benitah