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Eduard Batlle (Foto: IRB Barcelona).
 12.06.2017

Eduard Batlle receives the XI Francisco Cobos Foundation Prize

The jury of the XI Francisco Cobos Foundation Prize for excellence in biomedical research has named the scientist Eduard Batlle at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), located at the Barcelona Science Park, winner of the 2017 award, in recognition of his contribution to knowledge of colorectal cancer and the potential of his research to generate new treatments and diagnostic tools for this disease. The presentation of the XI Prize will take place in October during an academic event that will bring together authorities from the scientific community.

 

The ICREA researcher Eduard Batlle has served as coordinator of the Oncology Programme and head of the Colorectal Cancer Laboratory at IRB Barcelona since 2005. His lab studies how colon cancer begins and its development into aggressive tumours with the capacity to metastasize. The achievements made by Eduard Battle’s lab in recent years has placed it among the most advanced in its field, allowing it to become an international reference for the scientific community.

Eduard Batlle has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) since 2008, first through an ERC Starting Grant, then through an ERC Advanced Grant, awarded in 2013, and finally through an ERC Proof of Concept, given in 2014, the latter devoted to the clinical translation of his results.

Presented to Spanish scientists considered to have made relevant contributions to biomedical research in the last five years, the Francisco Cobos Foundation Prize  seeks to strengthen their research and scientific projects. Twenty-five candidacies of exceptional international standing were presented for this award. The jury was chaired by Emilio Lora Tamayo D’Ocon, president of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC).

The patron Francisco Cobos (1924–2015), who set up the foundation in 1999, believed that “we live in a world in which science underlies everything. Within science, people most directly perceive biomedical breakthroughs, because at the end of the day health and disease affect us all. The general public is great debt to researchers”.