Epigenetic Contributions in Autoimmune Disease

ESTEBAN BALESTAR is head of the Chromatin and Disease Group at the Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Programme (PEBC) of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL ) in Barcelona, Spain. Ballestar obtained his PhD degree from the University of Valencia under the supervision of Prof. Luis Franco, specialising in chromatin and histone modifications (1997). He then worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institutes of Health, (Bethesda, MD, USA) in the laboratory of Dr. Alan Wolffe where he investigated associations between elements of the chromatin machinery and methylated DNA. From 2001 to 2008, Esteban Ballestar has worked at the CNIO Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory, in association with Dr. Manel Esteller, where his principal area of research has been the study of the implication of chromatin factors in epigenetic alterations in human cancer. His current research is devoted to the establishment of different mechanisms of epigenetic deregulation in the context of the hematopoietic system in both autoimmune diseases and hematological malignancies.