Our Team

Ferran Sanz is chemical engineer by the Institut Quimic de Sarrià (Barcelona) and PhD by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He is Professor of Biostatistics and Biomedical Informatics at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), scientific staff of the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and Director of the IMIM-UPF Research Programme on Biomedical Informatics (GRIB) since 1985. Dr. Sanz is the author of more than 150 articles and supervisor of 20 PhD theses. He is the international coordinator of 10 EU-funded initiatives and a STOA report for the European Parliament. Currently, he is the academic coordinator of an IMI (Innovative Medicines Initiative) project on the in silico prediction of drug toxicity (eTRANSAFE). He is also a partner in other ongoing IMI projects (TransQST and FAIRplus) and H2020 projects (EU-ToxRisk and FAIRplus). Chair of the ELIXIR Board, co-president of the Spanish Technology Platform on Innovative Medicines (PTEMI) and vice-president of Bioinformatics Barcelona Association (BIB).

Laura I. Furlong is Co-founder and Scientific Director of Medbioinformatics Solutions. She holds a PhD in Biology from the University of Buenos Aires and an MSc in Bioinformatics from Pompeu Fabra University. With more than 18 years of experience in translational bioinformatics, one of her main interests is to translate cutting-edge bioinformatics research into real-world clinical applications. She has mentored 5 doctoral theses, published over 85 peer-reviewed articles, and has been included in the list of the top 2% most cited scientists worldwide. Her research also led to the development of different databases and scientific software, such as the DisGeNET and DISGENET plus platforms. She has participated in several European initiatives in the in silico toxicology and translational bioinformatics field.

Olga Valverde is the team leader of GReNeC, a group that specializes in Neurobiology of behaviour. She has a PhD in Neuroscience at University of Cadiz and a PhD in Pharmacy at University René Descartes (Paris V). She is also a full Professor at UPF. Dr. Valverde is the author of more than 100 international articles in relevant journals. She is the principal investigator of research projects funded by different agencies.

Janet Piñero is an accomplished senior bioinformatician and scientific advisor with a Ph.D. in Biomedicine from Pompeu Fabra University. She is also an associate professor at Pompeu Fabra University. Janet's research interests revolve around the development and implementation of computational tools for disease genomics data integration, exploration, and visualization. Janet's contributions to the field of biomedical bioinformatics have been instrumental in the development of the DisGeNET discovery platform, which has been cited in over a thousand scientific publications, and receives more than 10,000 users per month. Additionally, she has contributed to the creation of other bioinformatic tools that exploit various omics data and can be used to understand disease molecular mechanisms, comorbidities, drug action, and toxicity. Janet has also been actively involved in several H2020 and IMI projects.

Felix Slager has held a variety of senior management positions in the life sciences sector with a focus on international business development. He has started up and grown multiple pharmaceutical startups and managed mid-sized pharma companies. He holds a B.A. and master’s in International Business besides a complimentary Artificial Intelligence education at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Marta Muriscot holds a Master in Global Entrepreneurial Management by the University of San Francisco, Fu Jen Catholic University and IQS-Ramon Llull University, a postgraduate degree in international affairs and a B.A. in International Business and Marketing besides other complimentary education in management and global business. Marta has participated in multiple startups and strategy consulting projects, and also counts with professional experience in consulting strategy and international business development at Quirónsalud, the largest healthcare provider in Spain and Europe.

Jordi Valls is a Postdoctoral Researcher and experienced bioinformatic in the field of genomic analysis. He completed a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics, performed two masters one in Aquaculture and Biomedicine and obtained a degree in Biology at Universitat de Barcelona. Before joining MedBioInformatics Solutions, he was a PhD student at Barcelona Supercomputing Center and worked at Barcelona Skin Genomics developing a complete database of natural actives, in order to find specific compounds to treat different skin diseases or ageing.

Jaione is a highly accomplished biologist who received her degree from the Basque Country University, where she studied the identification of lncRNA biomarkers in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She then went on to complete her MSc in Bioinformatics at the UAB University, focusing her thesis on further characterising the genomic distribution of H1 histone variants in human chromatin and the impact on epigenetic regulation.
She has also been an active member of the scientific community, publishing a paper on lncRNA deregulation in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia: A systematic review.
Using her extensive knowledge, Jaione is dedicated to advancing the field of genomics and improving human health.

Natalia´s journey in the medical field started when she studied to be a medical doctor in the Altay State Medical University. After completing her MD degree, she started to work as environmental health specialist in the Altay federal institute of health. Switching to the private sector, during the next 10 years she held different roles in big pharma companies and eventually decided to move to Barcelona in 2020. She completed her MSc in bioinformatics at the UAB university. Even though she has changed the field of study, she is still using her medical knowledge to help others in their journey to better health.

Josep is an experienced full-stack web developer with a strong background in Django, Angular, and SQL. With over 5 years of professional experience, he has also worked extensively with ElasticSearch and cloud technologies, particularly AWS.

Franciellen is a passionate Front-end Developer with a background in Biomedicine. She transitioned her career to pursue her love for technology. Fran's journey includes participating in the 42 Barcelona program for C language skills and the Samsung FullStack development course. She has expanded her expertise in Front-end through the PIMEC training program. With a unique problem-solving approach and a commitment to excellence, Fran seeks new challenges and enjoys working collaboratively to create innovative solutions.

Professor of Pharmacology Coordinator of BioFarma Research Group CIMUS Research Center University of Santiago de Compostela

Director Clinical Bioinformatics Area
Fundación Progreso y Salud

Director of Fundación Pública Galega de Medicina
Xenómica
Profesor-Director of Instituto de Medicina Legal
(University of Santiago de Compostela)