David Torrents

Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación

Life & Medical Sciences

After graduating in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, I obtained the PhD in Molecular Biology at the University of Barcelona in 2000 in the group of Manuel Palacín working on amino acid transporters and associated genetic diseases. This PhD was awarded with the University PhD Extraordinary Prize. Then I moved with an EMBO long term fellowship to the group of Peer Bork to enter in the world of genomics, at the EMBL in Heidelberg, where I stayed from 2000 to 2006. There, I worked on genome annotation and analysis using bioinformatics approaches. Currently, since 2006, I'm a group leader at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center doing research on biomedical genomics, studying the relationship between changes in the genome and disease.  


Research interests

Genomes are the central molecules of life because they carry all the information necessary for the development, the survival and the reproduction of all organisms.  Over the lasts 20 years, the study of the genome in a biomedical context has provided valuable information about the genetic and molecular basis of diseases. Current sequencing of DNA allows the incorporation of the genome analysis as an integrated and regular protocol within the health-care system, resulting in a Precision Medicine, where the genomic information will be determinant for a more accurate diagnosis and for the selection of a more precise treatment. In this context, our group and my research activity is focused on the understanding the relationship between genomic variation and disease, in order to generate the basis for more precise medical care.  

Selected publications

- Sadler JBA, Wenzel DM, Williams LK, Guindo-Martínez M, Alam SL, Mercader JM, Torrents D, Ullman KS, Sundquist WI, Martin-Serrano J. 2018, 'A cancer-associated polymorphism in ESCRT-III disrupts the abscission checkpoint and promotes genome instability', Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A., 18;115(38): E8900-E8908.

- Bonas-Guarch S, Guindo-Martinez M, Miguel-Escalada I, Grarup N, Sebastian D, Rodriguez-Fos E,  Sanchez F, Planas-Felix M, Cortes-Sanchez P, Gonzalez S, Timshel P, Pers Tune H, Morgan CC, Moran I, Atla G, Gonzalez JR, Puiggros M, Marti J, Andersson EA, Diaz C,  Badia RM, Udler M, Leong A, Kaur V, Flannick J, Jorgensen T, Linneberg A, Jorgensen ME, Witte DR, Christensen C, Brandslund I, Appel EV, Scott RA, Luan J, Langenberg C, Wareham NJ, Pedersen O, Zorzano A, Florez JC, Hansen T, Ferrer J, Maria Mercader J & Torrents D 2018, 'Re-analysis of public genetic data reveals a rare X-chromosomal variant associated with type 2 diabetes (vol 9, 321, 2018)', Nature Communications, 9, 2162.

- Beekman R, Chapaprieta V, Russiñol N, Vilarrasa-Blasi R, Verdaguer-Dot N, Martens JHA, Duran-Ferrer M, Kulis M, Serra F, Javierre BM, Wingett SW, Clot G, Queirós AC, Castellano G, Blanc J, Gut M, Merkel A, Heath S, Vlasova A, Ullrich S, Palumbo E, Enjuanes A, Martín-García D, Beà S, Pinyol M, Aymerich M, Royo R, Puiggros M, Torrents D, Datta A, Lowy E, Kostadima M, Roller M, Clarke L, Flicek P, Agirre X, Prosper F, Baumann T, Delgado J, López-Guillermo A, Fraser P, Yaspo ML, Guigó R, Siebert R, Martí-Renom MA, Puente XS, López-Otín C, Gut I, Stunnenberg HG, Campo E, Martin-Subero JI. 2018, 'The reference epigenome and regulatory chromatin landscape of chronic lymphocytic leukemia', Nature Medicine; 24(6):868-880.