Trepat, Xavier

Biography

Xavier Trepat received a BSc in Physics in 2000 and a BSc in Engineering in 2001. In 2004 he obtained his PhD from the Medical School at the University of Barcelona. He then joined the Program in Molecular and Integrative Physiological Sciences at Harvard University as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2008 he became a "Ramón y Cajal" researcher at the University of Barcelona and in January 2011 an ICREA Research Professor at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC). He is Group Leader of the Integrative Cell and Tissue Dynamics research line at IBEC. In 2015 he won the Banc de Sabadell Award for Biomedical Research.

Research Interest

The ability of eukaryotic cells to migrate within living organisms underlies a wide range of phenomena in health and disease. When properly regulated, cell migration enables morphogenesis, host defense, and tissue healing. When regulation fails, however, cell migration mediates devastating pathologies such as cancer, vascular disease and chronic inflammation. Our research focuses in understanding the fundamental biophysical mechanisms underlying migration both at the single cell level and at the tissue level. To this aim, we develop novel technologies to measure nanoscale inter- and intra-cellular forces.