Cancer researcher Eduard Batlle has won the National Research Prize, the most important scientific award given in Catalonia, for his discoveries on the origin and progression of colorectal tumors that have opened the way to improving their treatment.
In the category of young researchers, the economist Mar Reguant, an Icrea researcher at the Institute of Economic Analysis (IAE-CSIC), has been awarded for her research on the electricity sector and the pollution associated with electricity production.
Batlle, also an Icrea researcher, has directed the Cancer Program of the Institut de Recerca Biomèdica (IRB) of Barcelona since 2004. Among his most important contributions, the discovery of the invisible cells that initiate metastasis and the creation of the first antibody that attack cancer stem cells.
The National Prize jury has assessed that “Batlle’s discoveries have given rise to new paradigms and therapeutic treatments, today in the clinical trial phase, and have inspired oncological research by scientists around the world.” His contributions “open new avenues to develop treatments and diagnostic tools that slow the progression and improve the prognosis of a disease that affects millions of people.”
Mar Reguant, who combines her work at the IAE with associate professor positions at the Barcelona School of Economics (BSE) and Northwestern University in Illinois (USA), has developed quantitative models and methodological tools to study and measure the impacts of energy policies. “This area of ??research is of enormous importance today, and will be even more so in the near future, due to the challenges that climate change is posing,” the jury assessed. Her contributions have led her to be part of the French government’s advisory group on major economic challenges, a group that also includes Nobel laureates Paul Krugman, Peter Arthur Diamond and Jean Tirole.
The National Research Awards, convened annually by the Generalitat and by the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation (FCRI), aim to promote social recognition of science and the activity of researchers, patrons, companies, communicators and entrepreneurs .
In the Scientific Communication category, the prize was awarded this year to the CosmoCaixa museum, recognized as “an international reference center in science dissemination.” Inaugurated in 1981 and remodeled between 2002 and 2004, the la Caixa Foundation museum has received more than 15 million visitors since its reopening twenty years ago.
The Dr. Antoni Esteve Foundation has been awarded in the Scientific Patronage category for the organization of symposiums and round tables on pharmacology and for its training activities over four decades.
The Institut de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona and the Icrea institution have been awarded in the Innovation category, which rewards the creation of science-based companies, for the spinoff Nuage Therapeutics, which develops selective drugs against proteins with disordered regions. These types of proteins, abundant in the human body and related to multiple diseases, had until now been considered unapproachable with drugs.
Finally, in the category of Public-Private Partnership in R&D, the National Award has been granted to the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera for its collaborations with research centers, hospitals and universities to develop research and the training of scientific talent. Its activities include, among others, the creation of the Ignacio Cirac Chair – Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) and the programs Joves i Ciència and Bojos per la Ciència, from which more than 5,000 students have benefited of ESO and baccalaureate with a scientific vocation.
The awards will be presented on June 20 in a ceremony to be held at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya.
