Ferran Casals

Head of Genomics Core Facility

Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)

Ferran Casals has developed his scientific career at three research centers. The results of his research have been reported in more than sixty publications mainly including original articles and also reviews, comments and book chapters. He received a PhD at the Genetics Unit of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona studying chromosome evolution in Drosophila, being awarded the Extraordinary PhD Award. In 2004 he started his first postdoc at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), on the application of population genetics methodologies to the study of the evolution of human immune system and infectious diseases. From 2008 to 2011 he pursued his studies at the CHU Sainte-Justine (Montréal, Canada), focusing on the use of high-throughput sequencing technologies to the study of both complex and rare human diseases, also participating in the 1000 Genomes Project. Since 2014, he is the director of the Genomics Core Facility and a researcher at the Experimental and Health Sciences Department (UPF). His current research focuses on the genetic etiology of rare diseases, in particular immunodeficiencies, and on the development of laboratory and bioinformatic methodologies for the analysis of genetic variation. He is currently coordinating the Genetics&Genomics subject (Bioinformatics degree, UPF) and involved in many other teaching both at the UPF and other centres. He is also the scientific coordinator of a new master in Bioinformatics for Personalized Medicine and Health, and very active in dissemination and outreach activities.