Tomàs Marquès i Bonet, principal investigator of the Comparative Genomics group at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE: CSIC-UPF) and ICREA professor in the Department of Medicine and Life Sciences at the UPF, received the City of Barcelona 2023 Award in the Life Sciences category.
This award, which has existed for 75 years, recognises excellence and international projection in the creation and scientific research in Barcelona. In the 17 years of the PRBB’s existence, Marquès i Bonet is the 10th researcher at the park to receive this recognition for research carried out at the PRBB, joining Elvan Böke in 2022, Pía Cosma in 2015, Pura Muñoz-Cánovas in 2014, Bill Keyes in 2013, Roderic Guigó in 2012, Ben Lehner in 2011, Luis Serrano in 2009 and Raúl Méndez in 2008.
The award, which was presented on 13 February at a ceremony in the Saló de Cent, recognised the work of Marquès i Bonet and his team in the study of primate genomics.
“This award makes me especially excited because it recognises the work of more than a decade of my entire group (present and past) dedicated to studying primates as a suitable model for understanding ourselves as a species”
Tomás Marqués
Thanks to his research, a consortium has been established that has generated the largest primate genomic database to date – a project that last year published the genome comparison of 809 individuals from 233 primate species. This has generated a resource that will provide new insights into biodiversity, species conservation and human evolution.
Congratulations!
