Carles Barceló

My top major contributions include: 1) The establishment and leadership of the group “Translational Pancreatic Cancer Oncogenesis” at the Health Institute of the Balearic Islands (IDISBA). I lead a translational group composed of clinicians and basic researchers mainly focused on the cooperation mechanisms used by oncogenes for the initiation of Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the deadliest type of cancer. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our group has shifted part of the scientific activity to COVID-19 research. 2) Competitive projects as a junior PI. As a PI, I received competitive funding from ISCIII (Project MS19/00100; 242.500 €; Project PI20/01267; 93.170 €; Project COV20/00571; 25.000 €; Project MV21/00099, 12.160 €) and by LaMarató TV3 (Project 202107-32; 335.000 €). We were also awarded 2 competitive projects from the Balearic Islands community (CAIB) research talent program to contract scientific personnel for my group (Project FOLIUM19/01, 83.999,93 € and Project TECH19/03, 81.232,59 €). 3) The discovery of host factors required for SARS-CoV-2 infection and related to severe COVID-19 as a senior last author in open-access publications (Torrens-Mas et al. Int J Mol Sci. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2022.942951) and collaboration to the seminal discovery of an essential requirement for infection (Ugalde et al. EMBO J. 2022 doi: 10.15252/embj.2022110727) 4) During my PhD at Universitat de Barcelona was first author of the seminal study describing the requirement of the phosphorylation of KRAS oncogene to fully display its oncogenic features and its relevance for directed therapy (Barceló C, et al. Cancer Res. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-13-1750.) 5) During my stay at DFCI- Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA), I found that the oncogenic functionality of KRAS in PDAC relies on an interactor for anti-apoptotic signaling and immune exclusion with high clinical relevance (Barceló C, et al. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2014.06.041)(first journal of its category) was commented extensively in the editorial of Gastroenterology (Siveke JT. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2014.08.026.). I also analyzed the mechanisms involved in the nuclear exportation of oncogenes and tumor suppressors to explore new therapeutic strategies in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry (Karyopharm Therapeutics (Boston, USA) (coauthor in Etchin et al, Leukemia. doi: 10.1038/leu.2012.219). 6) During my stay at Liverpool University (UK), I studied the distribution of KRAS proteins in the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane by electron microscopy. I found that oncogenic KRAS forms spatially and functionally distinct nanoclusters that allow the effector activation. The derivative first-author publication was considered seminal in the field, as it describes a novel technique to study plasma membrane proteins (Barceló C et al. J Cell Sci. doi: 10.1242/jcs.123737) 7) For these studies I received several academic Awards such as the “Premi Extraordinari” of the Faculty of Medicine- Univ Barcelona and the “Premi Claustre de Doctors” (Doctors' Senate Awards) for the best thesis from Universitat de Barcelona https://web.ub.edu/en/web/actualitat/w/the-university-of-barcelona-awards-the-extraordinary-doctoral-prizes-and-doctors-senate-awards 8) My previous academic records also include the Mention to the Spanish National Prize awarded to the best BSc Biochemistry obtained in Spain (https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2010-7120) and the “Premi Extraordinari” from Univ Illes Balears for the highest university qualification for the BSc in Biology 9) During my postdoc I was awarded the prestigious AECC Grant for Oncologic Research (ref:AIO15-2925) (200.000 €) (10 grants awarded every year and handed in by H.M. Queen Letizia) https://www.pcb.ub.edu/en/the-aecc-supports-cancer-research-at-irb-barcelona/ and Juan de la Cierva-formación (FJCI-2014-21215) fellowship. Also, my group received the ERC Advanced Grant EditCRC-ERC Advanced Grant (2.499.405 €) that, along with the AECC Grant, allowed me to pursue my research project on the analysis of the effect of particular oncogenic mutations in CRC using the genomic edition by CRISPR. Part of my work was published as a coauthor in Nature Genetics (Calon A, et al. Nat Genet. doi: 10.1038/ng.3225) 10) Outreach activities. Winner of the video/poster contest “La Recerca de Tots”. The most important video/poster contest exhibition on diagnosis and treatment of diseases and in health promotion activities and health services in Balearic Islands (dissemination activity). https://www.facebook.com/idisbaib/videos/exposici%C3%B3-la-recerca-de-tots/865610374211321/ 11) My mentoring experience includes the supervision of the Master thesis of 11 students of the MSc Data Science (UOC) and MSc Biomedicine (UIB), most of them working in research.