Dr. Esteban Ballestar is Professor of Epigenetics and Immunology at the Health Science Center, ECNU. Dr. Ballestar received his bachelor and doctoral degree in Biology from the University of Valencia. He then received postdoctoral research training at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, USA). After that period, Dr. Ballestar became senior scientist at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) in Madrid, Spain (the first 5-year period as a Ramon & Cajal Scientist). Later on, Dr. Ballestar became senior group leader at the Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Programme of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) in Barcelona, Spain. He then moved his research group to the Josep Carreras Research Institute (IJC) in Barcelona. In 2018, Ballestar was elected correspondent member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences.
His lab mainly works on dissecting the epigenetic alterations and underlying mechanisms in inflammation, with a major focus on autoimmune disease. The main goals are: (i) to dissect the mechanisms that trigger functional and pathologically relevant epigenetic alterations, including those affecting cell-cell crosstalk, cell signaling pathways and transcription factors, as well as additional alterations at the cell organization and metabolic level; (ii) identify clinically relevant epigenetic alterations in autoimmune disease and other forms of inflammatory diseases that provide basic knowledge on disease pathogenesis; (iii) to develop markers for clinical purposes. Bulk and single cell epigenomics and transcriptomics approaches in combination with immunological methodologies are implemented in the lab to achieve these goals. Author of more than one hundred and forty peer-reviewed manuscripts in high rank journals, Dr. Ballestar has supervised and mentored a vast number of graduate students and postdocs. Several of which are well established leaders in prestigious institutions in different countries. Dr. Ballestar is a member of a number of international scientific societies and reviewer for many journals and national and international funding agencies.
Represatative Publications:
1. Ferreté-Bonastre, A.G., Martínez-Gallo, M., Morante-Palacios, O., Calvillo, C.L., Calafell-Segura, J., Rodríguez-Ubreva, J., Esteller, M., Cortés-Hernández, J., Ballestar, E. (2024) Disease activity drives divergent epigenetic and transcriptomic reprogramming of monocyte subpopulations in systemic lupus erythematosus. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. PMID: 38413168
Rodríguez-Ubreva, J., Calvillo, C.L., Forbes Satter, L.R., Ballestar, E. (2023) Interplay between epigenetic and genetic alterations in inborn errors of immunity. Trends in Immunology 44, 902-916.
2. Godoy-Tena, G., Barmada, A., Morante-Palacios, O., de la Calle-Fabregat, C., Martins-Ferreira, R., Ferreté-Bonastre, A.G., Ciudad, L., Ruiz-Sanmartín, A., Martínez-Gallo, M., Ferrer, R., Ruiz-Rodriguez, J.C., Rodríguez-Ubreva, J., Vento-Tormo, R., Ballestar, E. (2022) Epigenetic and transcriptomic reprogramming in monocytes of severe COVID-19 patients reflects alterations in myeloid differentiation and the influence of inflammatory cytokines. Genome Medicine 14, 134.
3. Morante-Palacios, O., Godoy-Tena, G., Calafell-Segura, J., Ciudad, L., Martínez-Cáceres, E., Sardina, J.L., Ballestar, E. (2022) Vitamin C enhances NF-kB-driven epigenomic reprogramming and boosts the immunogenic properties of dendritic cells. Nucleic Acids Research 50, 10981–10994.
4. Rodríguez-Ubreva, J., Arutyunyan, A., Bonder, M.J., Del Pino-Molina, L., Clark, S.J., de la Calle-Fabregat, C., Garcia-Alonso, L., Handfield, L.-F., Ciudad, L., Andrés-León, E., Krueger, F., Català-Moll, F., Rodríguez-Cortez, V.C., Polanski, K. Mamanova, L. van Dongen, S., Kiselev, V.Yu. Martínez-Saavedra, M.T., Heyn, H., Martín, J. Warnatz, K., López-Granados, E., Rodríguez-Gallego, C., Stegle, O., Kelsey, G., Vento-Tormo, R., and Ballestar, E. (2022) Single-Cell Atlas of Common Variable Immunodeficiency reveals germinal center-associated epigenetic dysregulation in B cell responses. Nature Communications 13,1779.
de la Calle-Fabregat, C., Rodríguez-Ubreva, J., Ciudad, L., Ramírez, J., Celis, R., Azuaga, A.B., Cuervo, A., Graell, E., Pérez-García, C., Díaz-Torné, C., Salvador, G., Gómez-Puerta, J.A., Haro, I., Sanmartí, R., Cañete, J.D., and Ballestar, E. (2022) The synovial and blood monocyte DNA methylomes mirror prognosis, evolution and treatment in early arthritis. JCI Insight 7, e158783.
5. Català-Moll, F., Ferreté-Bonastre, A.G., Godoy-Tena, G., Morante-Palacios, O., Ciudad, L., Barberà, L., Fondelli, F., Martínez-Cáceres, E.M., Rodríguez-Ubreva, J., Li, T., and Ballestar, E. (2022) Vitamin D receptor, STAT3 and TET2 cooperate to establish tolerogenesis. Cell Reports 38, 110244.
6. Morante-Palacios, O., Ciudad, L., Micheroli, R., de la Calle-Fabregat, C., Li, T., Barbisan, G., Houtman, M., Edalat, S.G., Frank-Bertoncelj, M., Ospelt, C., and Ballestar, E. (2022) Coordinated glucocorticoid receptor and MAFB action induces tolerogenesis and epigenome remodelling in dendritic cells. Nucleic Acids Research 50, 108-126.
7. Català-Moll, F., Ferreté-Bonastre, A.G., Li, T., Weichenhan, D., Lutsik, P., Ciudad, L., Álvarez-Prado, Á., Rodríguez-Ubreva, J., Klemann, C., Speckmann, C., Vilas-Zornoza, A., Abolhassani, H., Martínez-Gallo, M., Dieli-Crimi, R., Rivière, J., Martín-Nalda, A., Colobran, R., Soler-Palacín, P., Kracker, S., Hammarström, L., Prosper, F., Durandy, A., Grimbacher, B., Plass, C., and Ballestar, E. (2021) Activation-induced deaminase is critical for the establishment of DNA methylation patterns prior to the germinal center reaction. Nucleic Acids Research 49, 5057–5073.
8. Garcia-Gomez, A., Li, T., de la Calle-Fabregat, C., Rodríguez-Ubreva, J., Ciudad, L., Català-Moll, F., Godoy-Tena, G., Martín-Sánchez, M., San-Segundo, L., Muntión, S., Morales, X., Ortiz de Solórzano, C., Oyarzabal, J., San-José Enériz, E., Esteller, M., Agirre, X., Prosper, F., Garayoa, M. and Ballestar, E. (2021) Targeting aberrant DNA methylation in mesenchymal stromal cells as a treatment for myeloma bone disease. Nature Communications 12, 421.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1400-2440
There are currently several open international positions for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the lab. Candidates with a background in immunology, epigenetics, molecular biology and bioinformatics are encouraged to send their inquiries and resumes to eballestar@hsc.ecnu.edu.cn for detailed information.