Joan Guinovart

Joan Josep Guinovart Cirera (3 July 1947 – 1 January 2025) was a Spanish biochemist known for research on glycogen and liver glycogen synthase, as well as for work in FEBS, IUBMB and the Spanish Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Personal life Joan Guinovart was born on 3 July 1947 in Tarragona, Spain and died on 1 January 2025 in Barcelona. He was married to Rosa-Francisca Florensa. They lived in Barcelona, with frequent visits to a house designed and built for them in 2010 in Canejan, Val d'Aran, close to the border with France. Their daughter Caterina is a biomedical researcher on malaria at the ISGlobal institute.

Education Guinovart qualified in pharmacy and chemical sciences at the University of Barcelona in 1969, and was awarded a doctorate in pharmacy by the same university in 1973. and leading up to a study of Lafora disease, a debilitating disease characterized by accumulation of abnormal glycogen and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, another debilitating disease, where, in a mouse model, glycongen possibly modulated progression. In relation to the mouse model, he and his co-workers found that glycogen α particles still form in mouse liver in the absence of glycogenin, following an earlier study of fatigue in mice.

Earlier papers include a study of the relationship between diabetes and testicular function, suppression of glycogen synthesis in neurons, a guideline for statistical analysis of data from metabolomics, the effect of hypoxia on glycogen accumulation, and the control of glycogen synthesis by translocation of glucokinase.

Service to international unions and scientific societies Guinovart was president of the Spanish Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SEBBM) from 1996 to 2000, and in this capacity he presided over the organizing committee of the FEBS Congress in Barcelona in 1996. He was a member of executive committee of FEBS from 1997 to 2005. In 2021 he received the IUBMB Distinguished Service Award. After a lifetime of "contribution to the molecular biosciences community" FEBS in 2024 awarded him the first Israel Pecht Award. He had previously received the Diplôme d'Honneur of FEBS in 2007.

In 2005 he was elected as a Corresponding Member of the Chilean Academy of Sciences (the photograph at the beginning of this article was taken at the time of his admission), in 2006 to the Royal Academy of Pharmacy of Spain, and in 2011 to the Academia Europaea.