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Dr. Cristina Mayor-Ruiz during the award ceremony. Photo / IRB Barcelona.
 24.04.2024

Cristina Mayor-Ruiz wins the 60th Anniversary Farmaindustria Young Researchers Award

Dr. Cristina Mayor-Ruiz, group leader at IRB Barcelona in PCB, ​​has won the 60th Anniversary Farmaindustria Young Researchers Award. The jury highlighted her impeccable academic and scientific development, the translational approach and the disruptiveness of her research for new treatments for different types of cancer, and her leadership capacity, making her a role model for future generations.

Cristina Mayor-Ruiz (Soria, 1989) leads the Targeted Protein Degradation and Drug Discovery research group at IRB Barcelona focused on drug discovery through the targeted degradation of proteins, an innovative approach that offers solutions to attack previously unreachable therapeutic targets and to overcome resistance to traditional therapies. She has secured international funding for her work worth more than €2M, and her postdoctoral research gave rise to the foundation of a biotech company of degrading drugs.

The jury took into account her remarkable academic career, with honours in her Biotechnology degree and an Extraordinary Doctorate Award. Likewise, Dr. Mayor-Ruiz has received two highly prestigious European fellowships, namely from the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and a Marie Curie Fellowship, which she used to carry out postdoctoral research at the CeMM, in Vienna (Austria).

Furthermore, her leadership capacity and commitment to creating collaborative and multidisciplinary work environments have been given special mention, which make her a great role model for current and future generations of researchers.

“I sincerely thank Farmaindustria for this recognition, which serves as motivation for our entire team. Thank you very much for supporting the work of young researchers!”, states Dr. Mayor-Ruiz.

The Evaluation Committee announced the winner after an intense deliberation session focused on the 20 finalists and in which four second prizes were also awarded to the profiles with the greatest merits.

The jury underscored the difficulty in choosing the winners from among the 20 finalists and the 113 applications received, all of them outstanding and thus reflecting the great pool of young talent present in biomedical research in Spain. Farmaindustria has received applications from 14 of the 17 autonomous communities, with a large female representation (66%).

Created in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Farmaindustria, this award is an example of the Association’s commitment and responsibility to the future of biomedical research in Spain.

The award is endowed with €40,000, 20% of which will be received directly by the winner and the remaining 80% goes to support their ongoing research projects. The funding will be transferred to the institution through which the winner manages her R&D&I activities.

The award ceremony for the first prize and four second prizes took place on 18 April during the Association’s 60th Anniversary gala at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid.

» For further information: IRB Barcelona website [+]