That life is full of coincidences and that it's about knowing how to seize them is something Tomàs Marquès Bonet (Barcelona, ​​1975), one of the world's leading experts in primate genomics and evolution, knows well. Although he wanted to dedicate himself to studying bats and Pyrenean frogs, he ended up at IBM performing banking transactions and learning to program. A few years later, life presented him with an opportunity to return to science, which he seized by writing a computational thesis at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) comparing humans and chimpanzees. And so, it all began again. Since then, Marquès, a professor at UPF and ICREA researcher, and head of the comparative genomics group at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE UPF-CSIC), has dedicated himself to the molecular study of primates to learn about humans as a species. He argues that the genomes of our closest evolutionary relatives are key to understanding human biology. Also to combat the illegal trafficking of these animals and help their conservation.

The temporary demographic imbalance caused by the fall in the birth rate, combined with the more permanent increase in life expectancy, is leading to a pronounced aging of European populations. This is turning the provision of care to the elderly into a critical issue.

Since ancient times, humans have wondered what makes us human. Different disciplines have sought answers to this endless question, and surely one of the most enticing proposals comes from biology, particularly genetics. Comparative biology is, in this sense, a very powerful tool that allows us not only to quantify the differences between species, but also to understand how these differences may have contributed to specific traits in our lineage. By comparing human genomes with closely related species with which we share a recent common origin, such as the great apes, we can identify which molecular changes are unique to humans and which we share with other primates. This evolutionary perspective helps us distinguish which traits are truly human and which are part of a deeper common heritage.