Joan Massagué Solé was born in Barcelona in 1953. He holds a doctorate in Pharmacy (Biochemistry) from the University of Barcelona (1978). He joined Brown University, Rhode Island, in 1982, where he discovered the structure of the insulin receptor. In 1989, he joined New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to head their Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics. He also researches at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His work has mainly targeted the study of the various glycoproteins that trigger cell transformation. In 1993 he published his studies on the working mechanisms of two of the three factors that check the uncontrolled multiplication of cancer-producing cells: the p27 peptide and the tumour growth factor beta. The identification of TGB β, one of the most powerful inhibitors of cell proliferation, figures outstandingly amongst his work. His team has defined FoxG1 and PI3K-AKT, new targets for future drugs. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of USA, the American Academy of Arts ans Sciences and the European Molecular Biology Organization.