Team

Xenopat is a spin-off company, of the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and the Bellvitge University Hospital (HUB).

Alberto Villanueva, PhD.

Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder.

Principal investigator of the Drug Resistance Group at ICO-IDIBELL. Bachelor of Biology (1990) and PhD in Genetics (1997) from the University of Barcelona. He performed his postdoctoral studies (1997-2001) in a joint project between Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and Cold Sping Harbour Laboratories. He is internationally renowned through his work on orthotopic PDX (Personal Derived Xenograft), that he named orthoxenografts®. He has used these models not only to study drug resistance acquisition mechanisms (including resistance to cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil and oxaliplatin), but also to develop new antioncogenic drugs and oncogenic personalized treatments. Some of his orthoxenograft® models are unique in the world. He is the author of up to 60 peer-reviewed scientific publications.He has been a key collaborator in projects with several pharmaceutical companies (PharmaMar and others), providing them orthoxenografts® for performing advanced preclinical developments of new anticancer molecules.

August Vidal, MD.

Chief of Molecular pathology and co-founder.

Pathologist at the Pathological Anatomy Service of the Bellvitge University Hospital. Pathological Anatomy Program Director. In charge of the Gynecologic Pathology and Dental Pathology areas and team member of the Urologic Pathology and Head and Neck Pathology areas at the Bellvitge University Hospital. Bachelor of Medicine by the University of Barcelona (1990), specialization in Pathology at the Pathology Service of the Bellvitge University Hospital (1992-1995). He is author of up to 70 peer-reviewed scientific publications. Associate Professor at the Department of Pathology and Experimental Therapeutics of the University of Barcelona. He is an expert in orthoxenografts® histopathological and genetic characterization.

Anna Portela, PhD.

Chief Executive Officer and co-founder.

Bachelor of Biology (2001) and PhD in Genetics (2007) by the Autonomous University of Barcelona. MBA from ESADE (2013). She has been a visiting researcher in different internationally recognized centers: Höhenheim Universität and Johns Hopkins University. She performed her postdoctoral studies in the Cancer Epigenetics Group, first at the CNIO (2007-2008) and then at the IDIBELL (2008-2014). Her research focused on understanding cancer molecular bases and define prognostic biomarkers in a series of different tumor types. She is the author of important peer-reviewed scientific publications.