 He then moved back to his native Spain to lead the newly created CNIO (Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas).Barbacid is credited for isolating the human oncogene HRAS in bladder carcinoma.His discovery was published in "Nature" in 1982 in an article titled "A point mutation is responsible for the acquisition of transforming properties by the T24 human bladder-carcinoma oncogene".