Mariano Barbacid

A classical sculpture depicts the Greek Titan Atlas bent awkwardly under the weight of an immense globe. The same sculptor might depict Mariano Barbacid, director of Spain's National Center for Cancer Research (CNIO), carrying an additional weight: Time. Like other Spanish scientists who have returned from the United States and Europe to build their country's biomedical research system, Barbacid must push time forward to an age when Spain attracts legions of Titans in the life sciences. In the meantime, he is trying to prove to expatriate Spanish researchers that the government will finance competitive research right now. That means showing them that the national research budget will consistently climb—now, at 0.9% of gross domestic product, including military research and development, it remains among the lowest in the European Community. He also must show those researchers he can loosen the taut Spanish bureaucracy and keep his staff competitive with scientists in other countries. "Spain has undergone a tremendous social and economic transformation ... in the last 15 years," he says. "In science, this transformation has not taken place. We are obviously better ... [but] we are not in a position to compare ourselves with France, the Netherlands, or England, the leading countries of the European Union." Many of Barbacid's peers who have returned from other regions share his goals, but they may not enjoy his access to decision makers, which was established first by the Spanish scientists who recruited him. Eventually, the prime minister himself would commit $35 million (US) in government funds, 23% of the country's $150 million research budget, to construct a new CNIO structure for labs and equipment. The institute moved to its new glass and steel quarters in February. CNIO's success, however, has also created conflict. Spain's cancer researchers, fearing their own budgets would be cut to pay for the sophisticated new center, protested the large central investment.1 "He has to fight with one of the main problems of the Spanish society," says Miguel Beato, who has recently left the Institute of Molecular Biology and Tumor Research, at Philipps University in Marburg, Germany, to direct the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona. "People are very envious: They think that because there is a limited amount of money, if Mariano is getting much money for his center, ... they are getting less." CNIO depends on earmarked funds, not on money drawn from the national budget for research, and its own financial situation is far from stable. With long-term government financial commitments barred by Spanish law, the government's $20 million contribution to the operating budget—about 60%—remains always at risk. Barbacid says he can realistically expect only minimal support from private charities and companies. For more stable funding, Barbacid will tap Europe's Sixth Framework Programme. He hopes to lure pharmaceutical corporations as well—he runs one CNIO division, devoted to drug discovery, like a biotechnology company. "We are also very actively seeking collaboration with Big Pharma," he says. "We are going to sign an agreement with Eli Lilly [and Co.] and are close to another agreement with another pharma company." A Driven Hard Driver Since 1998, the CNIO has hired 150—mostly young—scientists and plans to double that number by 2004. Barbacid has also hired the staff to create a national tumor bank. "He's a very self-driven guy and he, of course, always respects when he sees excellence in you," says E. Premkumar Reddy, director of the Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology at the Temple University School of Medicine. Reddy and Barbacid worked in the US National Cancer Institute's Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology in Bethesda, Md., where Barbacid's team was one of three that isolated the human oncogene in 1982.2 Later that year, Barbacid and Reddy, a pioneer in sequencing, identified the mutation that activates the Ras cancer gene in tumors.3 Two other teams also independently identified that mutation. In 1983, Barbacid's former research associate, Saraswati Sukumar, brought expertise in mice and in chemical carcinogenesis, and with his knowledge of molecular biology, they were the first to show how carcinogens activated oncogenes,4 says Sukumar, now an associate professor in the medical school at Johns Hopkins University. "For the first time, I realized here was a man who valued my expertise," she relates. Barbacid advanced to the Squibb Research Institute in 1988 before Bristol-Myers Squibb acquired the company, making him vice president for basic research in drug development. In 1998, his department closed. The M.D. Anderson Cancer Center offered Barbacid a chance to advance his research. But his country anted up a better opportunity: To be the brunt of criticism, the bearer of time, and the Atlas of a new world in Spanish life sciences. "If there [is] a person in Spain [who] people think of for that particular task, ... that would be Mariano," Santos says. "He's a respected scientist and he's shown before that he can do this kind of work." Paula Park can be reached at ppark@the-scientist.com. References 1. X. Bosch, "New cancer center makes a big splash in Spain," Science, 295:1995, March 15, 2002. 2. E. Santos et al., "T24 human bladder carcinoma oncogene is an activated form of the normal human homologue of BALB- and Harvey-MSV transforming genes," Nature, 298:343-7, 1982. 3. E.P. Reddy et al., "A point mutation is responsible for the acquisition of transforming properties by the T24 human bladder carcinoma oncogene," Nature, 300:149-52, 1982. 4. S. Sukumar et al., "Induction of mammary carcinomas in rats by nitroso-methylurea involves malignant activation of H-ras-1 locus by single point mutations," Nature, 306:658-61, 1983.

Mariano Barbacid

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