Awards and scholarships
CNIC awarded Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation
The Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research, (CNIC) has again received the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation of Spain’s Ministry of Science and Innovation. The CNIC first received this award in 2011.
The aim of this accreditation is to provide funds for and acknowledge public research centres and units of any scientific field that have impact and give scientific leadership at international level, and which collaborate in their social and business environment.It is awarded to organizational structures that have highly competitive, ground-breaking programmes that are amongst the finest in the world in their respective fields of science.
Centres must meet a series of criteria in addition to being high-impact and competitive in their field of activity on the world scientific stage. Among other criteria, the research activities must undergo periodic scientific evaluation by external, independent scientific committees and be conducted within a strategic programme that generates ground-breaking knowledge. In addition, the institution must have activities that train, select and attract human resources at an international level, and actively maintain institutional collaboration agreements with other high-level research centres, in addition to strengthening the transfer and dissemination of knowledge to society.
The Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation is valid for four years and brings one million euros funding per year, as well as allowing priority access to other research development initiatives.
The Association of Cardiovascular Imaging of the Spanish Society of Cardiology (SEC) awards its Gold Medal to Dr. Valentín Fuster
Dr. Valentín Fuster, Director of the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) is to receive the Gold Medal of the Association of Cardiovascular Imaging of the Spanish Society of Cardiology (SEC) for his original and innovative scientific activity in cardiovascular imaging to reach new frontiers in cardiovascular health of the heart and brain.
Dr. Valentín Fuster receives the medal for his innovative research activities related to public health that highlight cardiovascular imaging. In the words of Dr. Luis Jesús Jiménez Borreguero, President of the SEC Association of Cardiovascular Imaging, “Dr. Fuster has promoted major studies in this field, such as the High-Risk Plaque Initiative or the Progression of Early Subclinical Atherosclerosis, an original, pioneering project in the use of non-invasive imaging techniques to improve the estimation of cardiovascular disease progression before the onset of symptoms”.
Dr. Jiménez Borreguero adds, “Dr. Fuster’s original, fresh perspective in promoting translational research is key for many scientific projects. In this sense, his concept and the provision of an advanced multi-modal cardiovascular imaging system as an effective nexus between basic, pre-clinical and clinical research is already bearing its scientific fruits”.
Dr. Jiménez Borreguero also highlighted Fuster’s, “determined dedication to stimulating a scientific spirit among young people through his inspiring conferences, the CNIC programmes and grants, as well as his actions to promote cardiovascular health among the general public and, in particular, that of children and the least fortunate.”
Dr. Borja Ibáñez wins the Fundación Jesús Serra Research Award for his work in the fields of nutrition and food science
Dr. Borja Ibáñez, director of the Clinical Research Department of the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) and cardiologist at the Fundación Jiménez Díaz, is one of the winners of the third edition of the Fundación Jesús Serra Research Awards. This initiative of the Fundación Jesús Serra, part of the Catalana Occidente group, is aimed at scientists under the age of 45 who specialise in nutrition and food.
Dr. Borja Ibáñez was awarded this recognition for his clinical research career and, specifically, for his research work on “Nutritional approaches for the prevention of cardiotoxicity associated with cancer treatments”, which focuses on the development of new therapeutic intervention aimed at reducing the prevalence of chronic heart failure in cancer survivors.
According to the General Director of CNIC, Dr. Valentín Fuster, “There are very few researchers in the world capable of understanding translational research as Borja Ibáñez does, and who are able to decipher the mechanisms of disease and treatment at this molecular level to apply them in clinical practice, testing the therapies in clinical trials”. For Dr. Borja Ibáñez, receiving this award represents the “significant recognition of a study that we consider pioneer in Europe, and which will attract great interest in the cardiovascular and oncological fields, as well as among the general public. Moreover, it will enable us to increase the resources devoted to this project so that we can meet the targets set.”
The €35,000 awarded by the Fundación Jesús Serra Research Awards in each category are destined to incentivize research in the area of nutrition and food science, a field that has proved to be essential due to its connection with health. This connection has become so consolidated that a many studies and research papers indicate that lifestyles and dietary habits can prevent and improve the clinical status of some diseases such as ischaemic heart disease, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes cancer or obesity, among others.
JJosé Antonio Enríquez and Miguel Ángel del Pozo, new members of EMBO
The researchers of the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) José Antonio Enríquez and Miguel Ángel del Pozo have been named members of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). EMBO announced the names of the 64 scientists accepted into the organization, whose members are over 1,800 of the finest researchers in Europe and the world; new members are nominated and voted for by current members. Dr. Enríquez and Dr. Del Pozo join their colleagues Dr. Miguel Torres, Dr. Pura Muñoz and Dr. Francisco Sánchez Madrid, bringing to five the number of CNIC researchers who are EMBO members.
“I am delighted to be able to welcome the new members to our organization and I hope to have the opportunity to work with them”, said Maria Leptin, Director of EMBO. “Membership of EMBO acknowledges the outstanding achievements in life sciences of the selected scientists. The new members will bring their experience to further strengthen EMBO and its initiatives”.
EMBO members actively participate in the organization: They sit on the EMBO board, the various committees and the advisory editorial board of EMBO journals. They also evaluate the applications of EMBO calls for funding and act as mentors for scientists who are just setting out on their professional careers. The new members will be formally inducted at the annual meeting of EMBO members between 27 and 29 October 2021.
Dr. Guadalupe Sabio awarded the Banco Sabadell Foundation Prize for Biomedical Research
The Banco Sabadell Foundation awarded the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) researcher, Dr. Guadalupe Sabio Buzo, the Prize for Biomedical Research for her contribution to understanding why obesity causes cardiometabolic diseases.
In order to foster research, excellence and innovation, the Banco Sabadell Foundation recognises the contributions of Spanish researchers in the fields of cardiometabolic diseases, sensory technology, political economy and economic development.
Dr. Guadalupe Sabio Buzo heads the research group on the role of stress-activated kinases in the development of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. The group’s work focuses on understanding the factors that appear in obese individuals as an alteration of fat, deregulation of internal body clocks and cellular stress, which may be the causes of the onset of these diseases.
In addition, an article by Dr. Sabio’s group receives the Antoni Esteve Foundation Research Award. The study, published in Nature in 2019, revealed relevant data about the involvement of the protein p38gamma in the development of the main type of primary liver cancer, which affects over a million people a year worldwide.
In 2019, the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) group led by Dr. Guadalupe Sabio published data in the journal, Nature, about the involvement of protein p38-gamma in the development of the main type of primary liver cancer.
The international jury, which awards the Antoni Esteve Foundation Research Award every two years, considers this scientific article to be the most important pharmacological publication by a Spanish author between 2019 and 2020.
As first author of the paper, Antonia Tomás Loba received the award on behalf of the whole team in an awards ceremony.
This is the seventeenth edition of the Antoni Esteve Foundation Research Awards, which grant €18,000 to the best work of pharmacological research of any kind (design, synthesis, galenic development, clinical or laboratory evaluation, etc.) published by a Spanish author in the last two years.
Almudena Ramiro, Caja Rural de Granada Foundation, Health Sciences Award
Dr. Almudena Ramiro of the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) received the XVII Caja Rural de Granada Health Sciences Award for her research into the treatment of atherosclerosis.
Vascular diseases are the main cause of death in the Western world. Heart attacks and strokes are the consequence of thrombus that form and obstruct arteries, causing destruction of the tissue affected by the lack of blood flow. The creation of the thrombus is, in turn, the consequence of a process that remains asymptomatic for a long period, and is known as atherosclerosis. For years, we have known that immune response plays a major role in atherosclerosis, but the implications of this response in the development of atherosclerotic disease are not known in detail.
Dr. Ramiro and her team have approached this problem using highly innovative technology to study the genes of B lymphocyte antibodies in mice with atherosclerosis. This research has been able to catalogue 18 antibodies that identify atherosclerotic plaque. Closer analysis revealed that one of them (known as A12) targets ALDH4A1, a molecule of the organism itself.
The importance of this finding was confirmed when it was discovered that production values of this molecule increase during atherosclerosis. Apart from the value of this biomarker in the development of the disease, a particularly important finding was the fact that use of the A12 antibody as a blocker was able to notably reduce free cholesterol levels and the formation of atherosclerotic plaque.
The award jury valued the quality of results as well as their originality and clinical significance since, apart from identifying a target structure for altered immune response, the A12 antibody may constitute a completely new strategy of great relevance for the future treatment of patients with vascular diseases. This work was published in Nature, one of the highest-impact medical journals in the world.
Dr. Jorge Alegre, named member of the Academia Joven de España
The CNIC researcher, Dr. Jorge Alegre Cebollada has been voted one of the ten new members of the Academia Joven de España, a Spanish organization established as a scientific public corporation whose main aim is to represent young scientists and give them greater visibility. This organisation is linked to the Global Young Academy and the Instituto de España (the umbrella organization for Spanish Royal Academies and Institutes).
Dr. Alegre received leads the CNIC Molecular Mechanics of the Cardiovascular System research group that investigates how mechanical forces determine muscle function at molecular, cellular, tissue and organism levels.
In 2020, the project “ProtMechanics-Live: Uncovering Protein Mechanics in Physiology and Disease”, led by Dr. Alegre, was selected for one of the European Commission’s ERC-consolidator grants. The project will receive 2 million euros over the next five years.
One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Academia Joven de España is precisely that it allows young Spanish researchers who work abroad to become full members. This new measure was introduced in order to foster collaboration among young Spanish researchers, and to connect those of them who are working outside the country with academic institutions in Spain.
Dr. Miguel Torres appointed Associate Editor of Science Advances
The researcher at the National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC), Dr. Miguel Torres, has been appointed Associate Editor of the prestigious scientific journal Science Advances.
Science Advances is a peer-reviewed, open access, multidisciplinary scientific journal created in early 2015 and published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAA).
Dr. Torres is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). Dr. Miguel Torres’s scientific research focuses on the regulation of embryonic development and the formation and regeneration of organs. His major contributions include the understanding of how gene activities regulate regionalization processes in the developing embryo and the discovery of mechanisms involved in quality control and organ regeneration.
Dr. Miguel Torres’s scientific research focuses on the regulation of embryonic development and the formation and regeneration of organs
Marta Cortés Canteli recipient of a 2021 Leonardo Grant
Marta Cortés Canteli’s research project on the “Preclinical connection between cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease”, has obtained one of the BBVA Foundation’s 2021 Leonardo Grants for Researchers and Cultural Creators.
Her project, which will receive a gross 40,000 euros, aims to determine the levels in blood of the plasma biomarkers for Alzheimer’s, in particular of the phosphorylated tau-181 protein, among asymptomatic middle-aged individuals with cerebral hypometabolism and subclinical atherosclerosis disease to ascertain whether they were already in the initial stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
The PESA-CNIC-Santander Progression of Early Subclinical Atherosclerosis study, led by Dr. Valentín Fuster, is a prospective study that includes over 4000 asymptomatic middle-aged subjects among whom the presence and progression of subclinical atherosclerosis has been exhaustively evaluated since 2010.
The CNIC participates in the "Meetings inspirational with professionals"
The CNIC researcher Marta Cortés Canteli was one of 36 professionals from different areas that participated in the ‘Encuentros inspiring among professionals and students’, promoted by the Bertelsmann Foundation and Empieza por Educar, and directed exclusively to the 100 educational centers of the pilot project Xcelence-Escuelas Que Inspiran.
For four days, these professionals with very varied academic trajectories have shared their experience with 6,000 students from educational centers in Madrid and Catalonia
For four days, these professionals with very varied academic trajectories have shared their experience through Zoom and YouTube with 6,000 students of the 4th year of ESO from educational centers in Madrid and Catalonia.
Francisco Sánchez Madrid received the Santiago Ramón y Cajal National Prize in the area of Biology
Francisco Sánchez Madrid received the Santiago Ramón y Cajal National Prize in the area of Biology. Dr. Sánchez Madrid leads the research group at the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC), is Professor of Immunology at the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid (AUM), Spain, and Chief of the Immunology Service at La Princesa University Hospital, Spain.
The jury awarded him this prize, which he received from the King, in November 2020 for his contributions to biomedical investigation in the area of inter-cellular communication, adhesion, migration and activation of leukocytes, and for the impact that this has had on the study of chronic inflammatory diseases. The award was earned not only for these achievements, but also for the international repercussion of his scientific career, in addition to the relevance of his work in teaching, training and tutoring young Spanish scientists.
The jury awarded him this prize for his contributions to biomedical investigation in the area of inter-cellular communication, adhesion, migration and activation of leukocytes, and for the impact that this has had on the study of chronic inflammatory diseases
The juries highlighted the extraordinary quality of all candidates. In order to select the winner, the juries evaluated the merit of each candidacy on a competitive basis and applied the principles of publicity, transparency, equality and non-discrimination.
