Mariano Barbacid Montalbán (born 4 October 1949 in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

) is a Spanish molecular biochemist who discovered the first

oncogene An oncogene is a gene that has the potential to cause cancer. In tumor cells, these genes are often mutated, or expressed at high levels.

HRAS GTPase HRas, from "Harvey Rat sarcoma virus", also known as transforming protein p21 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the gene. The ''HRAS'' gene is located on the short (p) arm of chromosome 11 at position 15.5, from base pair 522,241 t ...

Academic career

He completed his higher education in the

Universidad Complutense de Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loca ...

, where he studied chemical sciences, and in the United States, where he started as an intern; years later he was appointed director of the

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

. He then moved back to his native Spain to lead the newly created CNIO (Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas). He also served on the Life Sciences jury for the

Infosys Prize The Infosys Prize is an annual award given to scientists, researchers, engineers and social scientists of Indian origin (not necessarily born in India) by the Infosys Science Foundation and ranks among the highest monetary awards in India to re ...

in 2011.

Scientific Research

Barbacid is credited for isolating the human oncogene

in bladder carcinoma. His discovery was published in ''Nature'' in 1982 in an article titled "A point mutation is responsible for the acquisition of transforming properties by the T24 human bladder-carcinoma oncogene".Reddy EP, Reynolds RK, Santos E, Barbacid M
«A point mutation is responsible for the acquisition of transforming properties by the T24 human bladder carcinoma oncogene.»
''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'' 1982 Nov 11; 300 (5888): 149–52. He spent the following months extending his research, eventually discovering that such oncogene was the mutation of an

allele An allele (, ; ; modern formation from Greek ἄλλος ''állos'', "other") is a variation of the same sequence of nucleotides at the same place on a long DNA molecule, as described in leading textbooks on genetics and evolution. ::"The chro ...

of the

Ras subfamily Ras, from "Rat sarcoma virus", is a family of related proteins that are expressed in all animal cell lineages and organs. All Ras protein family members belong to a class of protein called small GTPase, and are involved in transmitting signals ...

, as well as its activation mechanism. In 2003 he proved that the

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products. A ...

CDK2 Cyclin-dependent kinase 2, also known as cell division protein kinase 2, or Cdk2, is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''CDK2'' gene. The protein encoded by this gene is a member of the cyclin-dependent kinase family of Ser/Thr protein ...

, until then believed to be indispensable in cellular division, was not necessary in order for

DNA replication In molecular biology, DNA replication is the biological process of producing two identical replicas of DNA from one original DNA molecule. DNA replication occurs in all living organisms acting as the most essential part for biological inheritanc ...

to take place.

Publications

* «A point mutation is responsible for the acquisition of transforming properties by the T24 Human Bladder-Carcinoma Oncogene.» (1982). * «Direct mutagenesis of HA-RAS-1 oncogenes by N-Nitroso-N-Methylurea during initiation of mammary carcinogenesis in rats.» (1985). * "Ras genes." (1987). * "The TRK proto-oncogene encodes a receptor for nerve growth-factor." (1991). * "trkC, a new member of the trk family of tyrosine protein-kinases, is a receptor for neutotrophin-3." (1991). * "Genetic analysis of mammalian cyclin-dependent kinases and their inhibitors." (2000). * "Toll-like Receptor-4 (TLR4) Down-regulates MicroRNA-107, Increasing Macrophage Adhesion via Cyclin-dependent Kinase 6." (2011)Hennessy EJ, Sheedy FJ, Santamaria D, Barbacid M, O'Neill LA
«Toll-like Receptor-4 (TLR4) Down-regulates MicroRNA-107, Increasing Macrophage Adhesion via Cyclin-dependent Kinase 6.»
''J Biol Chem'' 2011 Jul 22; 286 (29): 25531-9.

Awards

His scientific career has been awarded with prizes such as the Distinguished Young Scientist Award (1983), the King Juan Carlos I Science award (1984), the Rhodes Memorial award (1985) and the Charles Rodolphe Brupbacher (2005). His effort has also been acknowledged with the Great Cross of the Order of 2 May (2011). Other awards include: * King Juan Carlos I Award (Spain, 1984) * Rhodes Memorial Award (USA, 1985) * Joseph Steiner Award (Switzerland, 1988) * IPSEN Prize in neuronal plasticity (Austria, 1994) * Charles Rodolphe Brupbacher Cancer Prize (Switzerland, 2005) * International Agency for Research on Cancer Medal of Honor (France, 2007)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbacid, Mariano 1949 births Living people Spanish biologists People from Madrid Fellows of the AACR Academy Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences