Bataller Luis

I obtained my degree in Medicine in 1995 at the University of Valencia and from 1996 to 2000 I completed the residency in Neurology at Hospital La Fe in Valencia. Later I obtained a Fulbright scholarship and did a predoctoral stay at the Neuro-Oncology Laboratory of the University of Arkansas in the USA under the supervision of Dr Josep Dalmau for 14 months (2001-2002). During this period I developed the experimental work of my doctoral thesis. For this, I used the methodology of cloning genetic libraries of the nervous system as a basis for the discovery of new antigens involved in paraneoplastic neurological syndromes. These studies focused mainly on the study of the opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome. Although we could not demonstrate the presence of a causal antibody, the data found supported the immune origin of the disease and were the basis for my doctoral thesis (presented at the University of Valencia in 2003). From 2003 to the present I have worked continuously as a Clinical Neurologist at Hospital La Fe in Valencia (since December 2019 as Head of Service) developing my research activity in the Neuromuscular Diseases and Ataxia Research Group. In this framework I have developed research projects with special interest in cerebellar ataxias and autoimmune encephalitis. The work has been aimed at finding new antigens as biomarkers of immunological processes associated or not with systemic cancers in patients with ataxia and encephalitis. Since 2008, I have coordinated a CSUR reference unit for Ataxias and Spastic Paraparesis in our center within the framework of the Service Centers and Reference Units Program of our National Health System (code 42). In this environment, in the coming years my main research interests will focus on: 1) continuing with immunological studies in cerebellar ataxia and autoimmune encephalitis; 2) develop genetic studies in ataxias and spastic paraparesis through the clinical description of phenotypes, the application of Next Generation Sequencing technology for the identification of new genes, implement cell studies and animal models of hereditary ataxias (particularly in Friedreich's ataxia), and participate in clinical trials of new therapies in this group of diseases.