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Awarded by the Fundación Rei Jaume I, the prize acknowledges Dr. Eduard Batlle’s career and his significant contributions to research into colon cancer and, in particular, to the study of cancer stem cells and how they faciiltate the evasion of the immune system.
On Tuesday 8 June, Dr. Eduard Batlle, head of the Colorectal Cancer lab at IRB Barcelona, ICREA researcher, and group leader at CIBER Cancer (CIBERONC), received the Rei Jaume I Prize for Medical Research. The Rei Jaume I prizes acknowledge people who have carried out highly significant work which has mostly been undertaken in Spain. The prizes are given each year and awardees are presented with a gold medal, a diploma and €100,000 - to be reinvested largely in research.
"It is a great honour to receive this prize," says Dr. Batlle. "Acknowledgements like this give impetus and visibility to cutting-edge projects, contributing to the promotion of research as a differential feature of this country," he adds.
The research at the Colorectal Cancer lab
The laboratory led by Dr. Batlle studies cancer from two perspectives, namely the evolution of cancer stem cells, and the interaction of these cells with the environment during the progression of the disease. Specifically, it seeks to reveal how these aspects facilitate the development of metastases. This group recently discovered a mechanism involved in absence of the immune system at the centre of the tumour, which is responsible for the poor response to treatments aimed at enhancing the eradication of tumours through patients’ immune systems. Blocking this mechanism can dramatically increase the success rate of these therapies in many types of cancer.
"The ultimate goal of our lab's research at IRB Barcelona is to obtain information that allows us to design new therapeutic and diagnostic tools that can benefit patients," says Dr. Batlle.
IRB Barcelona is a leading European research centre in cancer and metastasis, bringing about important advances in our understanding of this process and improving prevention, diagnosis and treatment. The multidisciplinary research performed at IRB Barcelona is done in close collaboration with the main reference hospitals in Catalonia and pharmaceutical companies.
Other Rei Jaume I prizes
Before Dr. Batlle, Dr. Miguel Beato (2020) and Dr. Pura Muñoz-Cànoves (2019), received the Rei Jaume I Prize for Medical Research, along with other outstanding researchers in the field of biomedicine.
In 2021, which marks the 33rd year of the Jaime I Prizes, the jury comprised outstanding figures, including, among others, the Nobel Laureates Erwin Neher, Randy Sheckman, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Jules Hoffmann and Aaron Ciechanover. The following people have also received the prize this year: Dr. Licia Verde, in the category of Basic Research; Antonio Cabrales, in Economics; Fernando Valladares, in Environmental Protection; Nuria Oliver, in New Technologies; and Benito Jiménez, the Entrepreneur prize.
More information about the Rei Jaume I Awards: https://www.fprj.es/
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).
