Ramon Estruch, MD, PhD

Professor Ramon Estruch is currently Senior Consultant in the Internal Medicine Department of the Hospital Clinic (Barcelona), a position he has held since 2002. He is also Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at the Barcelona University from 1996 and member of the ERAB Advisory Board at UE from 2011.

The main research lines developed by Professor Estruch are the following: (1) Effects of chronic alcohol consumption on heart, liver and brain; (2) Cardiovascular effects of Mediterranean diet; (3) Mechanisms of the effects of moderate wine and beer consumption; (4) Effects on the expression and function of cellular and endothelial adhesion molecules related to development of atherosclerosis; (5) Effects of different alcoholic beverages on immune system; (6) Effects of olive oil, nuts and cocoa on lipid profile and inflammatory biomarkers related to atherosclerosis.

In the last years, his group has received grants from the European Commission, National Institute of Health (NIH) from USA, CICYT, Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agroalimentaria (INIA) del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (FIS) and Instituto de Salud Carlos III del Ministerio de Sanidad (ISCIII).  In addition, Prof. Estruch is the leader of the Thematic Network “Mediterranean Diet and Cardiovascular Disease” from the ISCIII (Spain) and the coordinator of the PREDIMED study which has enrolled nearly 7,500 high-risk patients and is evaluating the effects of a Mediterranean Diet and its main components for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease.

Ramon Estruch has published more than 250 articles in peer-review journal, including papers in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, Annals of Neurology and American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.  All these studies are being performed in collaboration with foreign universities such as: Columbia University in New York, Loma Linda University in California, Harvard School of Public Health in Massachusetts, Human Nutrition Research Centre in Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA and Mario Negri Sud, Santa Maria d’Imbaro, Italy.