ICREA Professor Xavier Trepat at the BIST community centre IBEC has been awarded Lilly Foundation Award in the category of preclinical research. With this award, the Fundación Lilly acknowledges Trepat’s work, distinguished by the application of techniques and concepts from physics to the health sciences. Trepat is the sixth researcher from the BIST community to receive this accolade.
The jury of the Lilly Foundation Biomedical Research Awards 2024 has honored Professor Xavier Trepat in the category of preclinical research. These awards, now in their 22nd edition, recognise scientific careers of excellence that significantly contribute to the development of biomedicine and health sciences in Spain.
Trepat is the sixth member of the BIST community to receive this award, joining ICREA Prof. Núria López Bigas (IRB Barcelona), ICREA Prof. Salvador Aznar–Benitah (IRB Barcelona), ICREA Prof. Eduard Batlle (IRB Barcelona), Dr. Miguel Beato (CRG), and Dr. Javier Estivill (formerly at CRG).
Trepat, principal investigator of IBEC’s Integrative Cell and Tissue Dynamics group, has received the award for his pioneering work in applying novel techniques and concepts in the field of mechanobiology and biophysics. His research aims to understand how cells and tissues grow, invade, move, and regenerate in various physiological and pathophysiological processes. To achieve this, he has developed and patented several technologies that measure cellular mechanical properties at the micro- and nano-scale. The jury commends the pioneering and original technologies led by Professor Trepat’s group, which have been adopted in numerous laboratories worldwide and have represented a paradigm shift in the field of mechanobiology.
“The movement of cancer cells during metastasis is governed by physical forces. We need to understand the physics of cells to fight cancer,” says Xavier Trepat.
Mariano Barbacid, president of the jury comprising the Scientific Council of the Lilly Foundation, along with the winners of the previous edition, María Buti Ferret and BIST community member Nuria López-Bigas, and two renowned Spanish researchers in the scientific field, evaluated a total of 50 nominations in this edition. In addition to Professor Xavier Trepat, the other winner in the clinical research category was Professor Xavier Montalban, head of the Neurology Department at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and Professor of Neurology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and UVic-UCC.
The award ceremony will take place on Monday, June 17, where the winners will receive their awards and have the opportunity to participate in a colloquium on their research lines and their applications.
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