Xavier Bosch and Felipe Casanueva, winners of 2012 Lilly Foundation Biomedical Research Awards
Xavier Bosch, of the Catalan Institute of Oncology, will devote the €140,000 endowment to research to prevent HPV-related cancer.
By Biocat
The Lilly Foundation has granted its 2012 Biomedical Research Awards to Dr. F. Xavier Bosch, director of the Cancer Epidemiology Research Program at the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), and Dr. Felipe Casanueva, head of the Endocrinology and Nutrition Division at Hospital Clínico in Santiago and Scientific Director of the CIBERobn.
The €140,000 endowment for preclinical biomedical research, granted to F. Xavier Bosch, will be devoted to studying the human papilloma virus (HPV) and to creating a list of indicators that will allow for the design, planning and implementation of preventative measures for HPV-related cancer. Dr. Bosch’s research has made it possible to design specific vaccines for the virus that leads to cervical cancer, one of the most prevalent in women. He is the author of 425 scientific publications. In the last decade alone, these publications have been cited 10,682 times, with a Hirsch (H) index of 71. Regarding his scientific career, Dr. José Antonio Gutiérrez, director of the Lilly Foundation, highlighted his contributions to the causal association between HPV and some types of cancer, including cervical, vulva, vagina, anal, penile and oral-cavity cancers. Furthermore, he called his research “innovative and, in addition to his work to transmit knowledge, this has made professor Bosch an ambassador of excellence for science in Spain on an international level.”
Professor Felipe Casanueva will devote his €100,000 endowment for clinical research to various aspects related to obesity and tumor development, mainly in breast cancer. Likewise, he will devote part of the money to developing an anti-ghrelin vaccine to treat obesity. His lines of research hope to obtain knowledge related not only to the field of endocrinology but also to those of biochemistry and oncology. Casanueva is currently president of the Executive Committee of the International Society of Endocrinology and his 455 publications have been cited more than 13,000 times over the past 20 years. The panel of judges highlighted his multidisciplinary research and the fact that he is one of the most often cited European authors in the field of endocrinology, with a Hirsch (H) index of 65.
Recognizing 22 scientists
Over more than a decade, the Lilly Foundation awards have consolidated their position as one of the most prestigious in their field. Each year a growing number of candidates submit applications, nearly one hundred, and this year, “due to the financial situation science in our country is currently in, research centers have shown a special interest,” explained Dr. José Antonio Gutiérrez.
The award-winners have included 22 Spanish scientists of great international renown.
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