The director of the National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Dr. María Blasco, gave the inaugural lecture of the 3rd edition of the http://master.vhir.org/ Masters in Translational Biomedical Research at the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR). The researcher explained her research on the role of telomerase in cancer and aging.The master, associated to the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), begins today the new school-year with about 50 students enrolled. At the opening ceremony the students of the 2nd edition were handed with the diplomas and also seven scholarships covering the full amount of tuition of students from the 3rd with the best academic qualifications. The awarding of the grants was made possible thanks to the collaboration of the Banco Sabadell Foundation, Ferrer Advanced Biotherapeutics and Roche.The Master is an official program designed to train researchers of excellence, with the necessary combination of medical and scientific knowledge and skills to contribute to the success of translational biomedical research in the future.The aim of the course is to provide students with the necessary knowledge to be able to transform the theoretical knowledge of basic research into clinical applications, treatments and better diagnostic methods which result in a benefit for the patients' health. At the end of the course, students should be able to understand the methodological, regulatory, logistical and ethical clinical and translational research, to design experiments and to identify opportunities to transfer the results to the industry, and to acquire a deep knowledge and a critical view of the main challenges faced by biomedical researchers.The Master is aimed at research career, gives access to the PhD program and offers students the opportunity to choose the area of biomedicine in which they would like to specialize and develop their training and laboratory practices.