Francesc Posas Garriga - Biography#

Francesc Posas is Full Professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) and the Director of IRB Barcelona (Institute for Research in Biomedicine; since 2018). After obtaining his doctorate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (1995), he made a postdoctoral stay at Harvard University (Boston, USA). From 1999 co-leads the Cell Signaling Research Group (https://www.irbbarcelona.org/en/research/cell-signaling). He was the chair of the Department of Health and Experimental Sciences at the UPF (2007-2013), Vice-rector for Science Policy at the UPF (2013-2017) and Commisioner for UPF scientific strategy (2017-2018). Dr. Posas received the award to Young Investigators from the Catalan Government (2001), EMBO Young Investigator Program (2000), EURYI to young investigators (ESF) (2004), EMBO member (2006), awarded with an ICREA Academia (2009-2014-2018) and the “Carmen and Severo Ochoa” Award (2011). Recipient of an ERC Advanced Grant (2012). During his career he has contributed to major discoveries in cellular adaptive responses published in more than one hundred articles (64 in the last 10 years), and, which, in total have been cited 7.025 times (Web of Science, March 2019). The index h of his scientific career is 43 (Web of Science), or 50 (Google Scholar).

He has studied cellular adaptive responses since the beginning of his research career. During his post-doctoral stay in Dr. Haruo Saito’s group (Harvard University; 1996-1998), he characterized the high osmolarity glycerol (HOG) MAPK signaling pathway in yeast (Cell 1996; Science 1997; MCB 1998; EMBO J. 1997, 1998, 2000). In 1999, he established the Cell Signaling Group at the UPF, studying the biological role of MAPKs and how they regulate stress responses in yeast and mammals (EMBO J. 2001, 2003; Nature 2004; Nat. Cell. Biol. 2004). Relevant publications during this 10 years-period have been published in Nat Commun. 2018; Nat Microbiol 2019; Genome Res 2019; Cell Rep. 2017; Molecular Cell 2016, 2014, 2006; Nature 2013; EMBO J. 2012, 2011, 2006; EMBO Rep. 2011; Science Sig. 2011, 2009; MCB 2015, 2007, and collaborations in Science 2016, 2011; Nat Commun. 2017; Cancer Res. 2016. He also has explored the limits of biological computation on synthetic biology (Nature 2011; Trends Biotec. 2012; Integrative Biol. 2016; PLOS Comp Biol 2016).