Xavier Suarez-Calvet

Dr. Xavier Suárez-Calvet obtained his bachelor degree in Biology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in May 2009. After he achieved his Master of Science in the field of Immunology with the project "Role of TLRs in GBS syndrome" directed by Prof. Isabel Illa and Dra. Silvia Vidal. In 2010 he started his PhD in the Neuromucular Diseases Unit in Institut de Recerca Sant Pau, working in the project led by Prof. Isabel Illa and funded by ISCIII "Relevant immunologic aspects for developing new therapeutic strategies in neuromuscular diseases". During his PhD he learnt all the aspects needed to develop translational research in a mixed team of clinical and basic researchers working together "bed to bench and back to the bed site". The research work in this period was done in different neuromuscular diseases (Muscle dystrophies, myasthenia gravis, inflammatory neuropathies and inflammatory myopathies) and with different techniques (histology, in vitro, in vivo, ...). In addition, during this period he obtained the certificate as an investigator with animal models, he attended to international courses (ISNI, MyoGrad) and presented his results in international congresses (ICNMD, WMS). In July 2015, he obtained his PhD in Medicine with the highest possible qualification (Cum Laude) with a special award. His thesis was the result of publications in high impact journals in the field of inflammatory myopathies, results that merited an editorial comment. In September 2015 he started his postdoctoral period with a grant of The Myositis Association (USA). He joined to the team of Prof. Olivier Benveniste (Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, Institute of Myology, Paris, France) during one year in which he worked in the role of autoantibodies in myositis and to search new therapies for these diseases. With the support of AFM-Telethon he continued the research in myositis in Barcelona. Currently he is a Postdoctoral Fellow "Sara Borrell" funded by the Ministry of Science of Spain. During the next 3 years his main focus is to understand the mechanisms implicated in muscle degeneration and to develop new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of muscle dystrophies.