Dr. Julio E. Benabe is a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. He completed his Internal Medicine training at the San Juan VA Medical Center and a fellowship in Renal Diseases and Hypertension at Washington University, Barnes and Wohl Hospital in St. Louis, Mo. Since 1981 he joined the faculty at the UPR-MSC and the San Juan VA Hospital where he served as Staff Physician, Chief of the Renal Division and Acting Chief of Medicine at the VAH. From 1995 to 2010 he was Program Director of the UPR-MSC Clinical Research Center-RCRII and has been ACOS for R&D at the SJVA Caribbean Healthcare System from 11/2004 to 2/2011.

He has been involved in the study of the role of the renin angiotensin system and the renal prostaglandin system in the progression of renal disease and hypertension and has published over 50 peer reviewed papers and textbook chapters in the field. He has been an active member of the American Society of Nephrology, the American Society of Hypertension, the Southern Society of Clinical Investigation and the Latinamerican Society of Nephrology and Hypertension. Dr. Benabe is currently active in clinical trials on hypertension and progression of Chronic Kidney Disease and is Professor of Medicine at the UPR-MSC and leader of the Participants and Clinical Interactions Key Function of the PRCTRC.