Two people from groups at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) have recently been appointed members of institutions of great prestige and impact in the fields of health and sustainable development in Catalonia.
The Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia (RAMC) has appointed Gema Revuelta, professor and researcher at the Department of Medicine and Life Sciences (MELIS-UPF), as an Academician. This is in recognition of her work as a scientific and medical communicator.
Revuelta is the academic director of the Center on Science, Communication and Society Studies at MELIS-UPF. She also directs the Master in Scientific, Medical and Environmental Communication at the UPF Barcelona School of Management. During her professional career, she was deputy director of the Observatory of Scientific Communication and director of Scientific Culture of Barcelona.
The RAMC acts as an advisory body to the health and justice administrations and promotes debate on current health issues. It also promotes studies on the history of Catalan medicine. Revuelta is a member of the Academy’s Section IV, which is dedicated to social medicine.
Josep Maria Antó, of the Barcelona Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), has been recognised for his career as a researcher in health and planetary health. He has been appointed a member of the Advisory Council on Sustainable Development (CADS).
Antó leads ISGlobal’s Planetary Health unit, which links human and planetary health. He is co-chair of The Lancet Countdown Europe initiative and emeritus professor of medicine at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF).
The CADS is a collegiate body that advises the Government of Catalonia on sustainable development and the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda. It assists in the integration of these goals into the policies, territorial and sectoral planning and legislative and regulatory projects of the Catalan Government.
Awards and recognition for new talent and established careers
In addition to these appointments, several PRBB researchers have received other awards in recognition of their careers.
Tomàs Marquès i Bonet, a researcher from the Institute for Evolutionary Biology (IBE: CSIC-UPF), was awarded the ‘Ciutat de Barcelona’ prize in the Life Sciences category. This prize is awarded by the city council of Barcelona in recognition of excellence in creativity, research and cultural production in the city. In its seventy-first edition, it recognises the scientific achievements of Marqués i Bonet in the field of primate genetics and the development of an international consortium to create the largest primate genomic database to date. These studies have applications in conservation biology, human evolution and human health.
Eva Novoa, from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) , has been recognised by the Young investigator Programme of the European Molecular Biology Organisation’s (EMBO). Novoa is group leader of the Epitranscriptomics and RNA Dynamics programme at the CRG, where she studies the role of RNA in the cell. The programme recognises her excellence as a young leader and provides her and her team members with financial support, the opportunity to build international relationships and training.
Two researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) have also received recognition for their scientific careers. Jeffrey V. Lazarus received the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award for 2023 from the American Liver Foundation. The award recognises his research into diseases such as viral hepatitis, HIV and COVID-19. It also recognises his impact on healthcare systems, particularly in improving patient access, care and quality of life.
In addition, Alberto García-Basteiro won the Alkebulan Early-Career Talent Award 2023 for his research on tuberculosis in southern Mozambique, an area with a high HIV prevalence. The prize was awarded by the Association of Spanish Researchers (ACE) in Southern Africa, in collaboration with the Spanish Embassy in South Africa and with funding from the Ramón Areces Foundation.
Finally, Jenniffer Linares from the Hospital del Mar Research Institute received the Novel Talent Award from the Chair of Immunology at the Francisco de Victoria University (UFV). This prize, awarded by this university in collaboration with the science and technology company MERCK, rewards the best scientific and clinical contributions in the field of cancer immunology research.
Congratulations to all the winners!
