Prof. Claudio Sunkel is the Director of the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health since 2020, and Head of the Cell Division and Genomic Stability Group, at i3S in the University of Porto, Portugal

Prof. Sunkel is Full Professor of Molecular Biology at the Biomedical Institute of University of Porto, and former Director of the Institute of Molecular Cellular Biology from 2009-2019 and head of the Molecular Genetics Group at the same institute.

He is a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization since 2000, was Vice-President of the European Molecular Biology Conference (2007-2010), Vice-President of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory Council (2010-2012), elected Chair of the EMBL Council (2013). In addition, Prof. Sunkel was a member of the Welcome Trust-India Alliance fellowship selection committee (2009-2014). During 2007-2008 he was the National Coordinator for the Evaluation of Research Units by the Foundation for Science and Technology of Portugal.

His laboratory is mostly devoted to the study of cell division and of the mechanisms involved in maintaining genomic stability in higher eukaryotes. Prof. Sunkel started these studies during his postdoctoral work at Imperial College London, UK, and later continued in Porto. He has published over 100 original peer review articles and supervised many PhD students and Post Docs. He teaches Molecular Genetics for Biochemistry and Bioengineering BSc Major at ICBAS, University of Porto. He holds a First Class Honours degree in Biology (1979) and a PhD in Genetics (1983) from Sussex University, UK.