Xavier Gómez-Santacana is a chemist who has always been interested in applying chemistry to the fields of biology and pharmaceutical sciences. After graduating, he joined the pharmaceutical industry (Almirall and Esteve Química), but later decided to return to academia. He completed a PhD in Organic and Medicinal Chemistry (UB, 2012–2016) under the supervision of Amadeu Llebaria (IQAC-CSIC) and Pau Gorostiza (IBEC). After defending his doctoral thesis (with distinction cum laude), he joined Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (The Netherlands) to lead a GPCR photopharmacology line (2016–2018).

After his first postdoctoral period, he joined the Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle (IGF-CNRS) to lead a project on protein labelling and, finally, returned to Barcelona in 2021 to rejoin the MCS group after receiving a Tecniospring Industry – Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowship.

Since then, he has been a senior postdoctoral researcher in the MCS group, leading a research line on protein labelling and several projects in photopharmacology. In 2026, he will be promoted to Tenured Scientist at IQAC.