Oscar Fernandez-Capetillo

Oscar Fernandez-Capetillo (Bilbao, 1974) did his PhD in the University of The Basque Country working with mouse models of autoimmunity with Dr. Ana Zubiaga. For his postdoctoral stay he joined the group of André Nussenzweig, where he started to work on DNA repair and the role of histone H2AX. In 2005, he joined CNIO to lead the Genomic Instability Group where he has been ever since.

His main focus has been on exploring the role of replicative stress in cancer and ageing, for which the group has combined cell biology, mouse models and drug development projects. Part of this work led to the development of ATR inhibitors for the treatment of cancer, which are now part of the clinical development programs in several Pharmaceutical Companies. Since 2015 Oscar is also the Deputy Director of CNIO, and full professor at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.