One of the CNIO’s prime objectives is to bring cancer research closer to the cancer patients and their families as well as society at large, by organizing events that are open to the general public on such important days as World Cancer Day and World Cancer Research Day. During these days, the citizens have the opportunity to learn about the present (and future) cancer research from some of the world’s most renowned scientists in the field, such as Nobel Prize-winners Harald zur Hausen, who discovered the role of human papilloma viruses in cervical cancer, and Elizabeth Blackburn, co-discoverer of the enzyme telomerase; and Raúl Rabadán, Professor in the Department of Systems Biology and Director of the Mathematical Genomics Program at Columbia University (USA).