Scientific Advisory Board

Meet our professional advisers
ONCOLOGY
Josep Tabernero
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Rafael Cantón
CARDIOVASCULAR
Francisco Fernández Avilés
HEPATOLOGY
Pere Ginès
ENDOCRINOLOGY
Rafael Simó

Dr Josep Tabernero

Chairman of the Board – Expert in Oncology

Head of the Medical Oncology Department at Vall d’Hebrón University Hospital and Director of the Vall d’Hebrón Oncology Research Institute.

 

Dr Tabernero is head of the Cancer Molecular Therapy Unit at Vall d’Hebrón Hospital and a founding member of the Tumour Committee at Vall d’Hebrón Hospital. Actively involved in translational research and pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies for new antineoplastic drugs, he is Professor of Medicine at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

He was President of the Spanish Society of Oncology in 2018-2019 and is a member of the Management Committee of the European Society for Medical Oncology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He belongs to the editorial board of the principal oncology journals. He has received several awards, including the Scientific and Research Career Prize from the Catalan and Balearic Medical Sciences Academy, and is co-author for over 470 international scientific papers, with an impact average impact factor of 11,176 and an H index of 82.

Dr Rafael Cantón

Expert in Infectious Diseases

Head of the Clinical Microbiology Department at University Hospital Ramón y Cajal and associate Professor of Clinical Microbiology at Complutense University in Madrid.

 

Dr Cantón has been president of the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC) (2015-2017) and Chairman of the European Committee for Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) (2012-2016). He is currently a member of the scientific advisory board of the European Union Joint Programme Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR), member of the Spanish Antimicrobial Committee (COESANT) and Clinical Data Coordinator of EUCAST. He is also an active member of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease (ESCMID). He belongs to the editorial board of several microbiology journals and is editor of the Clinical Microbiology Procedures of the SEIMC.

His clinical and research work is focused on antimicrobial resistance mechanisms, antimicrobial susceptibility testing, respiratory tract infections (mainly in cystic fibrosis patients), and the interplay of clonal epidemiology and resistance. He has published more than 440 articles in medical journals and 50 chapters in textbooks.

Dr Francisco Fernández Avilés

Expert in Cardiology

Full Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Complutense University (UCM); Chairman of the Department of Cardiology in the University Hospital Gregorio Marañón of Madrid; Scientific Director of the Spanish Network Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CIBERCV).

Prof Fernández Avilés leads one of the biggest and most productive groups in Spanish medicine and, as Scientific Director of the CIBERCV, coordinates the best basic and clinical cardiovascular research groups in Spain. Together with his institutional and organisational responsibilities, he combines intense clinical and academic activity. His research focuses on the protection and regeneration of the damaged myocardium. He has received several awards and has published more than 700 articles in scientific journals, abstracts and book chapters, with a total impact factor of 1,703.02, a cumulative citation index of 13,727 and a H index of 42.

He participates actively in various Spanish and international public and private organisations as an expert on the planning and the assessment of medical care, teaching and research activity. He is Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and the European Society of Cardiology and belongs to the editorial board of the main cardiovascular international journals.

Dr Pere Ginès

Expert in Hepatology

Chairman of the Liver Unit, Hospital Clinic Barcelona; Full Professor of Medicine, University of Barcelona; Director of Liver Transplantation; Head of the IDIBAPS and CIBEReHD research groups.

 

Dr Ginès is a founding and current member of International Research Consortiums such as the EASL CLIF Consortium and LIVERSCREEN Consortium. He participates as reviewer on several national and international evaluation boards and has been visiting professor in medical schools located in Europe and the Americas.

His research is focused on liver diseases such as cirrhosis, chronic liver disease and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, as well as renal dysfunction and failure, and biomarkers in liver disease. He has co-authored over 760 scientific international papers with a cumulative citation index of 29,747 and a H index of 92. He has raised over €11M in public and private funds for his research and has received several awards for his scientific career.

Dr Rafael Simó

Expert in Endocrinology

Chair of the Division of Endocrinology and Nutrition at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital; Director of the Diabetes and Metabolism Research Unit at Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR); Professor of Medicine and Endocrinology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Deputy Director of Clinical Research at VHIR.

 

Prof Simó is the coordinator of the European Consortium for the Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy (EUROCONDOR). This consortium has been funded by the EU for developing the first clinical trial using neuroprotective agents topically administered to prevent or arrest the development of diabetic retinopathy. In addition, Prof Simó is the Diabetologist of Expert Committee on Diabetic Retinopathy and Vascular Diseases of the EVICR.net (European Vision Clinical Research).

Prof Simó is the current President of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes-Eye complications (EASD-ec), and is renowned worldwide for his contributions to the pathophysiology of diabetic complications, in particular diabetic retinopathy. Prof Simó has received several awards for his scientific and research career and has written more than 250 articles related to diabetes which have been published in high-profile peer-reviewed journals (Hirsh index: 49), as well as 14 book chapters. He has participated in 25 research projects related to diabetic retinopathy and in 38 projects related to clinical diabetes.