Josep M. Canals Coll

Profile summary

Josep M. Canals Coll is a Full Professor at the University of Barcelona and Group Leader at FRCB- IDIBAPS. He holds a large background on cell therapy for neurological disorders and neurodevelopment. Since 2021 he is the Principal Investigator of the laboratory of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at the Medical School and his group work has been working on the use of stem cells as a therapy for neurodegenerative diseases, mainly focusing on Huntington's disease. Nowadays, the group is also focused on the study of neurodevelopment in Huntington’s disease and to produce in vitro and in silico models for this disease. He is currently the director of Creatio, the Production and Validation Center for Advanced Therapies of the University of Barcelona, which has a preclinical area for regulatory drug validation (GLP) and a clinical production area to manufacture new medicines (GMP). He is also the coordinator of the HUB for Alternative Methods to Animal Experimentation (Hub MAEA) at the University of Barcelona. He has published 106 articles in internationally renowned journals including Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Neuroscience, Journal of Clinical Investigation, and Journal of Neuroscience among others (citations: 7433; h-index: 46; i10 index: 79). He has directed 15 PhDs and is currently supervising (including co- supervisors) 9 PhD students. He has been a member of the board of the Spanish Society of Gene and Cell Therapy and is currently member of the board of the Spanish Network of Advanced Therapies. At the international level, Prof. Canals is member of the steering committee of SC4HD, an international consortium for stem cell treatment of Huntington’s disease. Between 2013 and 2017, he was invited expert at the European Committee (Partial Agreement) on Organ Transplantation (CD-P-TO) of the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & Healthcare (EDQM) of the Council of Europe. He also has a lot of experience coordinating national and international projects and consortiums. He has participated and/or coordinated a total of 121 research projects or contracts, and he has been principal investigator of 39 research projects which include; 3 Spanish consortia, 3 American grants, and 3 European projects. He has also been the principal investigator of 36 contracts with companies in the biomedical sector.