Dr. Daniel Benítez, PhD, obtained his Bachelor's degree in Biology from the University of Barcelona in 1995 and completed his doctorate at the Immunology Service of HCB in 2003 under the supervision of Dr. Ramón Vilella. His doctoral research focused on the development of therapeutic vaccines based on allogeneic tumor cell lines and dendritic cells, with their clinical application in patients with melanoma. In 2004, he moved to the Netherlands as a postdoctoral researcher in the group led by Dr. Carl Figdor and Dr. Jolanda de Vries at the Department of Tumor Immunology, Radboud University, Nijmegen.

During his postdoctoral research, he evaluated and developed a clinical-grade dendritic cell vaccine derived from circulating plasmacytoid dendritic cells and its therapeutic application in patients with metastatic melanoma. In 2008, Dr. Benítez joined CIBERehd as a Principal Investigator affiliated with the Department of Gastroenterology at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. He played a pivotal role in establishing and supervising dendritic cell-based therapies for autoimmune diseases. Notably, he supervised the "first Phase Ib clinical trial in humans" in patients with Crohn's disease using autologous tolerogenic dendritic cells during the cell preparation phase.

In 2016, he joined the Immunology Service at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, within the Immunotherapy Section, and also became part of IDIBAPS. His focus expanded to encompass cell-based therapies for cancer, including dendritic cells in Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) and colorectal cancer, as well as CAR-T cells, along with treatments for autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's disease and Multiple Sclerosis. Currently, he oversees several ongoing clinical trials based on dendritic cells for cancer patients, with a particular emphasis on safety and monitoring.

Dr. Benítez's primary interests lie in translational research and the clinical development of cellular immunotherapies. He has authored over 50 publications, including articles, reviews, and clinical trials, which have been featured in esteemed journals such as Molecular Therapy, Cells, and Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer. Additionally, he holds two patents and has participated in numerous competitively funded and privately funded projects related to antitumor immunotherapy.

Since 2020 he is qualified person responsible to release cellular therapies and to maintain GMP regulation.

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