Marc Güell, group leader of the Translational Synthetic Biology Research Group at UPF, together with another 29 life scientists from the rest of the world, has joined the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) through its Young Investigator Programme. Four of the researchers elected are based in Spain and three of them in Barcelona.

The EMBO Young Investigator Programme supports life scientists who have been group leaders for less than four years and have an excellent track record of scientific achievements. It allows young scientists to boost their own research groups in their early career. Güell will join the existing network of 73 current and 384 former members of the programme.

The new EMBO Young Investigators and their teams will receive funding, mentoring, training and practical support for a period of four years, as well as the opportunity to network and access to core facilities at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. The programme received 216 eligible applications with an 14% application success rate. Newly elected Young Investigators are based in 11 different countries.

Güell’s research focuses on gene editing and synthetic biology, applied to gene therapy and human skin microbiome engineering. “Very much looking forward to participating in this amazing network of scientists to catalyse advancement of scientific progress. I’m sure it will be an excellent opportunity for important synergies with our synbio perspective”, states Güell.

“We are delighted to welcome the new Young Investigators to the EMBO community and look forward to supporting them in leading and further developing their independent laboratories”, says EMBO Director Maria Leptin in a statement. “These 30 life scientists have demonstrated scientific excellence and are among the next generation of leading life scientists. Their participation in the EMBO Young Investigator Programme will help them in this critical phase of their careers”.

About Marc Güell

Marc Güell has obtained a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry followed by another in Telecommunications Engineering. After his PhD at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), in 2011 he went to Harvard University’s Wyss Institute, where he conducted his postdoctoral research. He has dedicated much of his career to translational science. He is the founding scientist of eGenesis, a company aimed at providing an unlimited source of organs for transplantation, co-founder of sbiomedic, a company developing novel therapeutic solutions using the skin microbiome, and co-founder of Integra Therapeutics, a company developing safer and more efficient gene therapy.

In 2017 he joined UPF as a tenure track professor at the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences (DCEXS). His laboratory focuses on leveraging new gene editing technologies for therapeutic purposes. Its two main lines of research are mammalian genome engineering and microbiome engineering. He is also coordinator of the master’s degree in Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industry at UPF

More information: EMBO press release announcing the new EMBO Young Investigators.