Chair
CNB-CSIC and CIBERER-ISCIII
Madrid, Spain
Lluis Montoliu, BSc in Biology and PhD in Molecular Genetics (University of Barcelona) is a Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) scientist and a researcher at the Centre for Biomedical Network Research on Rare Diseases (CIBERER) at the National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB) in Madrid, where he is Deputy Director. At CIBERER he leads the Sensorineural Pathology program and serves on the steering committee. He has investigated albinism and its associated visual deficits for more than thirty years using genetically modified mouse models. He co-founded ALBA, the Spanish association in support of people with albinism and continues to collaborate with them. He was the co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of Albinism Europe and is now chairing the SAC of Global Albinism Alliance (GAA). His laboratory has produced more than 134 scientific publications with funds from local, national and European institutions. He is the current President of the European Society for Pigment Cell Research (ESPCR) and Vice-President of the International Federation of Pigment Cell Societies (IFPCS). He has written several books on albinism and has launched an initiative to genetically diagnose all Spanish people with albinism. He has organized numerous meetings and workshops on albinism for scientists and families.