BIST centre researchers receive prestigious awards

By November 15, 2022November 25th, 2022BIST Community, IBEC, ICN2

Prof. Nuria Montserrat from IBEC wins the Constantes y Vitales award for her pioneering research in the field of organoids, and Prof. Laura Lechuga Gómez from ICN2 receives the Lung Ambition Alliance Award for Innovation Projects dedicated to early detection of lung cancer.

Last week, two researchers from the BIST centres were awarded prestigious prizes for their research excellence.

Prof. Laura M. Lechuga Gómez, CSIC Research Professor and leader of the ICN2 NanoBiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group, has won the Award for Innovation Projects for Lung Cancer Early Detection by the Spain Lung Ambition Alliance. Thanks to this award, which is now at its second edition, the eNLIGHT (Ultrasensitive nanophotonic biosensors as a disruptive strategy to improve early diagnosis of Lung Cancer) project will be funded with 30,000 euros over its development period.

The eNLIGHT project proposes a novel diagnostic tool to detect lung cancer even in very early stages of the disease. It is an optical nanodevice capable of simultaneously detecting protein and genetic markers, related to the onset and progression of cancer using only a small sample of the patient’s blood.

In the words of Prof. Lechuga, “This award is the stimulus we need to continue working to increase life expectancy through innovative medicine. Early diagnosis could allow for more personalised medicine, as well as the application of more efficient therapies, which would result in an increased rate of patient recovery and survival, for what is currently the leading global cause of cancer death, i.e., lung cancer”.

Learn more about this project and award on the ICN2 website.

Prof. Núria Montserrat, ICREA professor and head of the Pluripotency for organ regeneration group at the BIST centre IBEC, has been awarded the Constantes y Vitales Young Talent Award in Biomedical Research in its 8th edition. These awards are aimed at recognising, valuing, supporting, and strengthening the research of Spanish scientist in the field of health.

Prof. Montserrat is a recognised expert in the field of organoid research. She and her team have successfully developed research dedicated to understanding how to control the human pluripotent stem cell differentiation in the renal field, which in 2019 led to a great achievement: the generation of renal vascularised organoids, published in the prestigious journal Nature Materials.

Her pioneering research has become an international reference in the field, and she has received a number of other important awards for her work, including the Premio Nacional de Investigación and the 2021 Young Talent Award from the Fundación Catalana para la investigacion y la innovacion (FCRi) and the Government of Generalitat de Cataluña.

Learn more about Prof. Montserrat’s work and this award on the IBEC website.