Dr. Marc Carnicer Heras is an Assistant Professor at Institut Químic de Sarrià (IQS) in the Universitat Ramon Llull since June 2015. In 2016 he joined the Laboratory of Biochemistry research group, led by Dr. Antoni Planas Sauter, as the Bioprocess Unit leader. He graduated in Biochemistry in 2007 by the University of Barcelona. He got his Master Degree and PhD in Advance Biotechnology and Biotechnology in 2008 and 2012 respectively from Autonomous University of Barcelona. In addition, he was awarded with the Extraordinary PhD award from Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2015. After finishing his PhD, he spent three years as a postdoc in the Integrated metabolism and dynamics of metabolic systems (METASYS) research group in Toulouse led by Professor Jean-Charles Portais. His research has been focused on understanding the metabolism of bacteria and yeast to improve its production capacities by combining molecular biology, bioreactor culture optimization, metabolomics and 13C-metabolic flux analysis. In his PhD he was involved in the GENOPHYS European project (BIO2005-23733-E) aimed the Genome-Wide Comparison of Physiological Bottlenecks in Multi-Subunit Protein Production in Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Microbial Hosts. More specifically, he was in charge to perform metabolomics and 13C-Metabolic Flux Analysis of a recombinant Pichia pastoris strain expressing an antibody fragment searching for potential production bottlenecks. In this period, he also performed different industrial project focused on recombinant protein production in Pichia pastoris. In his postdoc in Toulouse, he collaborated in the PROMYSE European project (FP7-KBBE-2011-3-6-04) aimed at producing different kinds of bio-based products out of methanol. His research was focused on further understanding the methanol assimilation capacities of the gram positive strain Bacillus methanolicus and transfer these features to non-native methylotrophs such as Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Corynebacterium glutamicum. Since he joined the Laboratory of Biochemistry as Bioprocess Unit leader, he continued his research interest on the production of different bio-based products from alternative carbon sources such as acetate. This compound, in contrast to other non-food feedstocks, can be assimilated for a great variety of cells including the most common industrial hosts like Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli. This fact, together with its lower price ($350 – 400 per ton) compared to glucose ($500 per ton), has converted it into a great candidate for biotechnological transformation in to value-added products from renewable sources. So far, his research at IQS has resulted in 6 Master Thesis supervised plus one PhD Thesis in progress.