Awards for outstanding creation, research and production developed in Barcelona
The Barcelona City Council acknowledges the impact of his studies in cancer and metastasis
The Barcelona City Council has announced the names of the winners of the 2018 Premi Ciutat de Barcelona, the highest accolade bestowed by the city on its citizens. Eduard Batlle, ICREA researcher, group leader and coordinator of the Cancer Science Programme at IRB Barcelona, has been given this prize in the “Life Sciences” category.
Eduard Batlle receives this institutional recognition for his recent article published in the journal Nature, which describes the discovery of the new mechanism that allows cancer cells to evade detection by the immune system and to form metastases. This finding reveals new approaches through which to increase the success of immunotherapy treatments in advanced stages of certain kinds of cancer.
The award ceremony for the 2018 Premis Ciutat de Barcelona will be held on Thursday 14 February at 18:00, in the “Saló de Cent” of the Barcelona City Council, and will be chaired by the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, and the Commissioner for Culture of the Council, Joan Subirats, and led by the actress Àgata Roca.
This is the third time that an IRB Barcelona researcher has been given this prize: the first scientist to receive it was Ernest Giralt (Head of the Peptides and Proteins Laboratory), in 2014, followed by Salvador Aznar (Head of the Stem Cells and Cancer Laboratory), in 2016.
The “Premis Ciutat de Barcelona” have been given yearly since 1949 by the Barcelona City Council in recognition of excellence in a variety of fields, including research and production, by creative individuals and groups working in these areas or by organisations in Barcelona that devoted to them or promote them.
More information about the Premis Ciutat de Barcelona.
TV3’s programme “Els Matins” has interviewed Francesc Posas, director of IRB Barcelona, about the increase in donations given to NGOs and research centres in Catalonia and about the #Metastasis Challenge campaign. During the interview, he talked about the importance of small fundraising initiatives undertaken by individuals, such as that of Magdalena Socias, a cancer patient who has decided to join the challenge by walking the Sierra de Tramontana to give visibility to the fight against metastasis.
The radio station Cope, and the newspapers Ara Balear, Diario de Mallorca and Ultima Hora, among other media, have echoed news about the personal challenge taken on by Magdalena Socias, a cancer patient in Majorca, who intends to cross La Serra de Tramuntana on foot in order to increase awareness of the fight against the metastasis. This hike is part of the #MetastasisChallenge campaign, through which the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) aims to raise €5 M over the next four years to boost research in this field.
Betevé Notícies Vespre has interviewed Eduard Batlle, coordinator to the Cancer Programme at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), about the recent campaign launched by the centre to raise funds for research into metastasis. “We have been studying metastasis at the centre for 10-12 years and have made some important findings. We now feel that it is a timely to push advances in this research, and with greater resources we will be able to speed up the process,” said Eduard Batlle.
