Mariano Barbacid is Director of the Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO) in Madrid, Spain. He is currently concentrating on the study of the role of cell cycle regulators in vivo and on the design of new animal models for cancer by using state of the art gene-targeting technologies.

In 1978 he formed his own group to work on the molecular biology of sarcoma viruses. At that time, he also explored the possibility that human tumours may carry activated oncogenes similar to those found in transforming retroviruses. This work led to the identification and cloning of the first human oncogene in 1981 and its subsequent identification the following year as a mutated allele of the H-ras proto-oncogene. In 1984, Barbacid moved to Frederick Maryland as Head of the Developmental Oncology Section of the NCI-FCRC Basic research Programme and in 1988, Barbacid joined the Bristol Myers-Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute in Princeton, New Jersey where he became Vice President, Oncology Drug Discovery in 1995. During this time, Barbacid was responsible for implementing a target-based drug discovery programme that focused on farnesyl transferase and cell cycle inhibitors, some of which are currently in clinical trials. In 1998, Barbacid returned to Spain to build a national cancer centre that would combine basic and translational research. The Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO) was completed in early 2002 and when fully operational (2005-06) will have a staff of about 500 scientists. Barbacid has received many awards and honours for his work including a Doctorate Honoris causa by the Universidad Internacional Menendez y Pelayo in Spain.

Barbacid has an outstanding list of publications, with 160 original papers in international scientific journals and 52 invited reviews and book chapters. He serves in numerous Scientific Advisory Committees and belongs to the Editorial Board of more than fifteen international scientific journals.