Mariano Esteban is a Research Professor at the Spanish National Council for Research (CSIC) at the CNB and leader of the CNB's Poxvirus and Vaccine group. During his professional career, he has worked at the National Center for Medical Research in London, the Department of Microbiology, Rutgers University School of Medicine (New Jersey, USA) and the Departments of Biochemistry and Microbiology and Immunology at the School of Medicine at the State University of New York (SUNY) before joining the CSIC and the CNB. He has been a CSIC research professor since 1987 and directed the CNB from 1992 to 2003.
Mariano Esteban's research has focused in understanding the molecular biology of viral pathogens to develop technologies and approaches to control the spread of infectious diseases. His studies on the vaccine virus, used as a vaccine to eradicate smallpox, have been the basis to generate new vaccines against prevalent diseases such as AIDS, hepatitis C, chikungunya, Ebola, Zika, malaria and leishmania. Among his scientific contributions, Esteban has more than 370 papers published in high-impact international journals, 11 patents, and the supervision of 34 doctoral theses. In his laboratory, researchers from various nationalities have been trained.
Mariano Esteban has been and is a member of prestigious international societies, such as the American Society of Microbiology, the American Society of Virology, the British Society of Microbiology and the Spanish Society of Microbiology. He has participated in the World Health Organization and several European Committees and, between 2013 and 2017, he has been a member of the CSIC’s Scientific Advisory Committee.
Among other scientific distinctions, he has won the New York Health Council award, the New York State University award and the Spanish Virology Society award. He has been president of the Spanish Royal Academy of Pharmacy and in 2017 he was appointed president of the Institute of Spain, an institution that integrates the ten Royal Academies. In 2020 he received the National “Medalla al Mérito Investigador” in the silver category.