Three years ago, Eduard Batlle is ICREA research professor of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the principal investigator and coordinator of the Translational Oncology Program and the Institute of Applied biomedical research in Barcelona (IRB Barcelona). It has a complete history that includes extended periods of research in leading laboratories in oncology: completed his doctoral thesis at the Municipal Institute of Medical Research (IMIM) in 1999, spent nearly two years of postdoctoral researcher in the group in Germany and Miguel Beato four more in the Netherlands Institute for Developmental Biology .

Currently, the team he leads at IRB Barcelona research focuses on the characterization of the mechanisms leading to the initiation and progression of colorectal cancers. Among other outstanding discoveries, Batlle described the transcription factor Snail as a suppressor of E-cadherin expression in tumor cells. His articles published in the last six years have been cited over 800 times and have been the subject of numerous review and comment in the most prestigious scientific journals.