Josep Tabernero holds MD and PhD degrees from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. He is currently the Head of the Medical Oncology Department at the Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, and Director of the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO).

He also co-directs the VHIO´s Gastrointestinal and Endocrine Tumours Group and the Research Unit for Molecular Therapy of Cancer (UITM) and is Principal Investigator of several Phase I pharmacodynamic studies and translational projects with molecular targeted therapies, as well as phase II and III studies with novel chemotherapeutics.

Based on the idea that each tumour has an independent genetic identity, his group aims at potentiating molecular therapies targeting specific oncoproteins and accelerating more effective personalized cancer medicines for patients displaying genetic lesions or pathway disregulation. One of his team´s main objectives is to establish novel predictive markers of response to anti-cancer therapies and identify markers of primary resistance (de novo) and secondary treatment.

At preclinical level, in collaboration with VHIO´s cancer researchers and physician-scientists, he develops new xenograft models with explant tumours from patients (“xenopatients”) in mice in order to mimic the patient’s disease and study tumour development in optimal research models. He also leads research into the study of circulating biomarkers (detection and genotyping of circulating free DNA), and is dedicated to advancing the immuno-oncology field through a large portfolio of trials with some of the most promising targets in immune checkpoints and cytokines. By paring immune therapeutics with oncogenomics, his team seeks to render anti-cancer therapies more precise.

Dr. Tabernero serves on the Editorial Boards of various top tier journals including Annals of Oncology, ESMO Open, Cancer Discovery and Clinical Cancer Research. He has (co) authored approximately 450 peer-reviewed papers.

Dr. Tabernero was on the Executive Board of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) having served as ESMO President 2018 – 2019. He is also member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and has been appointed as member of several Educational and Scientific Committees of ESMO, ASCO, AACR, AACR/NCI/EORTC, ASCO Gastrointestinal, and ESMO-GI/WCGIC meetings.