Tomas Marques-Bonet

Over the past fifteen years, Tomas has applied primate genomics to illuminate human evolution, with direct relevance for conservation genomics. In 2023, his team helped generate genomes for half of the world’s primate species, creating a foundational resource for biodiversity research, medical genetics, and evolutionary biology. Building on earlier discoveries of human-specific structural variation and great-ape genomic diversity, his laboratory has developed new approaches to interpret the functional impact of regulatory changes across humans and other apes. He has authored more than 230 peer-reviewed papers supported by ERC and NIH funding and has served the community through leadership roles such as Director of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC) and founder of the Barcelona Zoo Cryozoo. He also sits on several international scientific advisory boards; he is a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Spain and has received the Barcelona City Award (2024) and the Ramon y Cajal Medal (2025).