Francesc Cebrià

I am a Biologist and Professor at the Faculty of Biology of the University of Barcelona. I have been fascinated by planarians since I was an undergraduate student back in 1993 at the Department of Genetics of the Faculty of Biology, the home of the planarian experts Jaume Baguñà, Marta Riutort, Rafael Romero and Emili Saló. All my scientific career has been dedicated to study how these animals are able to regenerate, specially their central nervous system. During  my doctoral and postdoctoral years I was lucky to do a couple of short stays in the laboratory of Alejadro Sánchez Alvarado, and be a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratories of Kiyokazu Agata and Phil Newmark. Those were wonderful experiences at all levels. Since 2008 I have my own laboratory at the Department of Genetics of the Faculty of Biology in Barcelona where I still enjoy trying to understand how planarian pluripootent stem cells differentiate into their final fates. Of course I also enjoy going to the stadium to watch Barça's soccer games as well as reading Japanese manga. As one of the Vice-deans of the Faculty of Biology one of my current challenges beyond planarian research is to improve the quality of the teaching that all of our students receive.