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- The Spanish Biophysics Society acknowledges Dr. Xavier Salvatella´s contributions to biophysics through the award of the 2024 Manuel Rico-Bruker Prize.
The Spanish Biophysics Society (Sociedad de Biofísica de España, SBE) has awarded Dr. Xavier Salvatella, ICREA researcher and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Physics at IRB Barcelona, the 2024 Manuel Rico-Bruker Prize for his contributions to understanding the conformations and biological activities of intrinsically disordered regions in multidomain proteins.
Dr. Salvatella's work studies the intrinsically disordered domains in proteins of biomedical relevance such as the androgen receptor, a nuclear hormone receptor, and CPEB4, a translation regulator. His research explores the roles of these domains in cancer, as well as neuromuscular and neurodevelopmental diseases.
In addition, he is interested in developing drug-like small molecules as potential therapeutics targeting intrinsically disordered proteins. This line of research led to his recent co-founding of the IRB Barcelona spin-off Nuage Therapeutics, a Barcelona-based biotechnology company specialising in drug discovery for cancer treatment.
“I was very pleased to receive this award, on behalf of my team, because it is named after Manolo Rico, a scientist with whom I had great discussions back in the day,“ Dr. Salvatella commented.
The Manuel Rico-Bruker Prize was presented at European South Atlantic Biophysics Congress (ESAB2024), which was held in San Sebastián between 5 & 7 June.
About IRB Barcelona
The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) pursues a society free of disease. To this end, it conducts multidisciplinary research of excellence to cure cancer and other diseases linked to ageing. It establishes technology transfer agreements with the pharmaceutical industry and major hospitals to bring research results closer to society, and organises a range of science outreach activities to engage the public in an open dialogue. IRB Barcelona is an international centre that hosts 400 researchers and more than 30 nationalities. Recognised as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence since 2011, IRB Barcelona is a CERCA centre and member of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).
