Biography

Dr. Rafael Simó is the Director of Diabetes and Metabolism Research Unit at Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), Head of the Endocrinology Department at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, and Professor of Medicine & Endocrinology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. His group belongs to CIBERDEM (the Spanish network for the research of diabetes and associated metabolic diseases). Prof. Simó has authored over 200 articles related to diabetes which have been published in high-profile peer-reviewed journals, besides 12 book chapters. He has participated in 22 research projects related to diabetic retinopathy and in 28 projects related to clinical diabetes. Prof. Simó is the Coordinator of the European Consortium for the Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy (EUROCONDOR) (HEALTH-2011-FP7-278040). This consortium (constituted by 19 partners all of them leaders in diabetic retinopathy from 8 different countries) was funded by the EC for developing the first clinical trial using neuroprotective agents topically administered to prevent or arrest the development of diabetic retinopathy. In addition, Prof. Simó is the Diabetologist of Expert Committee on Diabetic Retinopathy and Vascular Diseases of the EVICR.net (European Vision Clinical Research). Prof. Simó is President of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes-Eye complications (EASD-ec), and renowned worldwide for his contributions to the pathophysiology of diabetic complications, in particular diabetic retinopathy. Prof. Simó received the Spanish Society of Diabetes Award (Rodríguez Miñón Award-2008) for a career in the field of Clinical Research in Diabetes, the “Dr. Josep Trueta” Award of the Academy of Medical Sciences from Catalonia (2011) for his innovative contributions in Biomedicine, and the Award of the Spanish Society of Endocrinology (2015) for the development and consolidation of a high-quality research group.