Mariano Barbacid was born in Madrid in 1949. At age 25 he finished his studies and moved to the United States. He worked in Maryland, USA, National Cancer Institute, from 1974 to 1988. In 1982, the working group led by Barbacid did an impressive job of isolating the human oncogenic from a tumor. Then the doors to genetic cancer research were opened. M.D. Houston until 1998 He was a researcher at the Anderson Center. Since then, Mariano Barbacid has been working in Spain to set up and direct the Oncological Research Centre of Spain on a commission.