Jury
Dra. Maria A. Blasco –
president of the jury
DA doctor in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1993), she is the Director of the CNIO (Spanish National Centre for Cancer Research) and leads its Telomeres and Telomerase group.
Her pioneering research established the fundamental role of telomeres and telomerase in cancer and ageing. She has published nearly 250 scientific articles and has won several awards and distinctions such as the Josef Steiner Cancer Research Award (Switzerland), the prestigious EMBO Gold Medal (European Molecular Biology Organization), the European Körber Science Award (Germany), the 2010 Premio Nacional Santiago Ramón y Cajal award in biological research and the 2016 Premio de la Comunidad de Madrid Miguel Catalán award for her career in research, among others.
Prof. Lina Badimon
Director of the Cardiovascular Science Institute (ICCC) and CSIC Professor at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau. Lecturer Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine – Cardiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York (USA), Director of Catalana Occidente Chair – UAB, Director of UNESCO Chair in Biomedical Sciences Training and Research and Vice President of Scientific Affairs of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
Her research interest is focused on cardiovascular and cardiometabolic diseases, atherosclerosis, thrombosis and ischemic diseases. She has published more than 490 articles in highly rated scientific journals. Her H index is 69.
Dr. Carlos Macaya
Professor Emeritus of Cardiology in the Faculty of Medicine at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). In 1998, he created the Cardiovascular Institute, of which he was the director until 2007.
He held the position of Director of the Cardiology Department at the Clinical Hospital San Carlos in Madrid up to 2021, the year of his retirement.
In 2007, he won the Jaime I Award for Medical Research, awarded by Fundación Premios Rey Jaime I.
Dr. Pedro Mata
President and founder of the Fundación Hipercolesterolemia Familiar (Familial Hypercholesterolemia Foundation)
Specialist in Internal Medicine, President and founder of the Spanish Family Hypercholesterolemia Foundation, President of the Ibero-American Family Hypercholesterolemia Network.
He served as Associate Chief of Internal Medicine at the University Hospital of the Fundación Jiménez Díaz until 2013. He is co-founder and board member of the International Familial Hypercholesterolemia Foundation. As a researcher, he has particular interest in epidemiological clinical and molecular research in Familial Hypercholesterolemia. He was director of the prospective cohort study of HF in Spain (SAFEHEART), a programme designed to understand the prognostic factors and mechanisms that influence the development of coronary heart disease and mortality in people with a genetic diagnosis.
Dra. Mercedes Rincón
Professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology from the School of Medicine at the University of Colorado. She earned her PhD at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and continued her research at the Yale University School of Medicine. She is co-founder of the startup Mitotherapeutix.
She has published 146 articles in major publications such as Science, Immunity and Nature Communications and has served on several panels at the National Institute of Health (NIH). She is the inventor of 2 patents and 3 patents of addition and is a world-renowned immunologist with experience in research fields such as allergies, asthma and arthritis, among others.
Dr. Guadalupe Sabio
Principal Investigator, Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO).
She worked as an associate researcher at the School of Medicine of the University of Massachusetts (Worcester, United States) until 2009 when she returned to Spain with a Ramón y Cajal contract to study diseases associated with obesity, such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Currently, she leads the Metabolic Diseases group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO). And additionally, in 2018, she was one of the first winners of the Research Award Jesús Serra.
Dr. Manuel Irimia
Research Professor ICREA and Principal Investigator at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG).
Dr. Irimia leads the research group that studies the role of microexons, which are tiny DNA sequences, in insulin secretion and the development of diabetes. The awarded project aims to explore their use in defining new molecular targets and therapeutic strategies for diabetes, thereby contributing to reducing the disease’s comorbidities and healthcare burden.
Dr. Maira Bes-Rastrollo
Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Navarra (UNAV) in Pamplona.
Dr. Bes-Rastrollo is an expert in nutritional epidemiology, specifically focusing on understanding how various dietary patterns influence chronic diseases and mortality, as these diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide and are partly the result of poor nutrition. The awarded project aims to evaluate the proper adherence to a vegan diet and prevent potential health risks.
Laura Halpern Serra
Secretary and spokesperson of the Jury