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Comprising more than 1,800 leading researchers, EMBO is an organisation that promotes excellence in the life sciences in Europe and beyond.
New members are nominated and elected by the existing EMBO Membership; it is not possible to apply to become a member.
The new EMBO members will be formally welcomed at the annual EMBO Members’ Meeting held between 27 and 29 October 2021.
Dr. Toni Gabaldón, ICREA Research Professor and group leader at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS), has been elected to become an EMBO member. This year, 64 leading life scientists have been appointed new EMBO Members and Associate Members, joining a community of more than 1,800 leading life scientists.
“It’s an honour to be welcomed into this organisation, with such outstanding peers. I understand being an EMBO member as a commitment to contribute to the guidance and preservation of the integrity of research in biology,” says Dr. Gabaldón.
Dr. Gabaldón is a biochemist and molecular biologist, head of the Comparative Genomics lab at IRB Barcelona and BSC-CNS, and associate professor at the University Pompeu Fabra. His main research addresses the complex relationships between genome sequences and phenotypes and how these two features evolve within and across species. His research group uses large-scale phylogenetics and molecular evolution approaches that allow the evolution of genomes to be examined from the perspective of all of their genes, and applies these analyses to a variety of biological questions related to the evolution and function of biological communities, organisms, organelles, pathways, and families of protein-coding and non-coding genes.
Four of the new EMBO members elected this year, among them Dr. Gabaldón, are based in Spain – the other three are Dr. Miguel Del Pozo (CNIC), Dr. José Antonio Enríquez (CNIC/CIBERFES), and Dr. Elisa Marti (IBMB). The 64 newly elected members reside in 21 countries and 41% of them are women.
“I am delighted to welcome the new members into our organisation and look forward to working with them,” says EMBO Director Maria Leptin. “An election to the EMBO Membership recognises outstanding achievements in the life sciences. The new members will provide expertise and guidance that will help EMBO to further strengthen its initiatives.”
EMBO members at IRB Barcelona
In addition to Dr. Gabaldón, Dr. Salvador Aznar-Benitah, Dr. Ferran Azorín, Dr. Jordi Casanova, Dr. Miquel Coll, Dr. Cayetano González, Dr. Núria López-Bigas, Dr. Raúl Méndez, Dr. Ángel. R. Nebreda, Dr. Francesc Posas and Dr. Manuel Serrano also hold EMBO membership. These members are actively involved in the evaluation of EMBO funding applications, and they serve on the EMBO Council and on various other committees. Furthermore, Dr. Fran Supek was awarded the EMBO Young Investigator grant in 2019.
About IRB Barcelona
The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) pursues a society free of disease. To this end, it conducts multidisciplinary research of excellence to cure cancer and other diseases linked to ageing. It establishes technology transfer agreements with the pharmaceutical industry and major hospitals to bring research results closer to society, and organises a range of science outreach activities to engage the public in an open dialogue. IRB Barcelona is an international centre that hosts 400 researchers and more than 30 nationalities. Recognised as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence since 2011, IRB Barcelona is a CERCA centre and member of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).
