Fulbright Gathering: Meeting with Dr. Manuel Serrano

“Recent advances in the understanding and treatment of aging”

SPEAKER: Dr. Manuel Serrano

Manuel Serrano obtained his PhD in 1991, at the University of Madrid (UAM). From 1991 to 1996, Serrano worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the team of David Beach at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY. During this period, Serrano made his most important discovery with the identification and characterization of the p16 gene, one of the most important genes for anti-cancer protection and a key inducer of cellular senescence. Serrano returned to Spain in 1997 to lead a research group, first at the National Center of Biotechnology (CNB), and then, from 2003 to 2017, at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), both in Madrid. In 2017, Serrano moved to the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), in Barcelona.

Serrano is internationally recognized in the field of tumor suppression, senescence and aging. The Serrano team was pioneer in the generation of genetically-modified mice resistant to damage and cancer. During the last years, the research interests of his group have extended to cellular reprogramming in relation to aging. The Serrano laboratory was first in demonstrating that cellular reprogramming into pluripotency is possible within tissues in vivo, and this was considered Advance of the Year 2013 by Nature Medicine.

Now, the focus of his laboratory is to apply their knowledge on senescence and reprogramming to degenerative diseases such as lung, kidney and heart fibrosis, as well as, to cancer therapy. Manuel Serrano is co-founder and advisor of the start-up company Senolytic Therapeutics based in Boston and Barcelona.

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