2023/10/30

A scientific project coordinated by CIC bioGUNE receives the 'Young Researchers' award from the AstraZeneca Foundation

The AstraZeneca Foundation has awarded the VII Young Researchers Awards under the motto “People who change lives”, an initiative that promotes the development and consolidation of young scientific talent in Spain.

CIC bioGUNE leads research on the molecular and cellular bases of intercellular communication in lethal prostate cancer: LetalCHAT coordinated by researcher Arkaitz Carracedo.

A project coordinated and led by Arkaitz Carracedo, Ikerbasque research Professor in the Cancer Cell Signaling and Metabolism Laboratory at CIC bioGUNE – member of BRTA -, has just received the Young Researchers award in the category 'Oncology, Precision Medicine and Immunoncology', awarded by the AstraZeneca Foundation. This is an initiative that, in its seventh edition and under the motto “People who change lives”, recognizes and promotes the development and consolidation of young scientific talent in Spain.

The project 'Deciphering the molecular and cellular bases of intercellular communication in lethal prostate cancer: LetalCHAT' has received 225,000 euros, an amount that will help improve the quality of life of thousands of patients. The Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital and the Carlos III State Public Sector Foundation (CNIO) also collaborate in this project.

The Young Researchers Awards of the AstraZeneca Foundation seek to promote research between groups from different autonomous communities, structured in a network research project, which facilitates the obtaining of results and generates greater scientific knowledge by promoting synergies between the different Investigation groups.

The project coordinator, Dr. Arkaitz Carracedo explained the reasons for this research: “This project is based on an emerging clinical need in oncology: there is a small group of patients with prostate cancer who present metastases. At the time of diagnosis, and whose disease presents alarming aggressiveness and mortality. We propose to unravel the mechanism underlying this aggressiveness with the most modern experimental and technological approaches, and through the creation of a young and highly synergistic team made up of clinical, computational and experimental researchers.”

Likewise, Dr. Carracedo added that “The recognition of the AstraZeneca Foundation represents an exciting challenge for us for two main reasons. On the one hand, the Foundation is the promoter of the fact that we have structured a young research team around an ambitious question. The participation of 3 centers of excellence such as CIC bioGUNE, VHIO and CNIO is proof of the highly competitive ingredients of the proposal. On the other hand, with this funding, the AstraZeneca Foundation will be a catalyst for a research project that may mean the creation of new groups and lines of research in oncology in the near future.”

The AstraZeneca Foundation's commitment to promoting science and research

Last year, the AstraZeneca Foundation increased the budget to one million euros and, in this sense, has decided to maintain its firm and solid support for young scientists in our country. The budget will be distributed among the winners to promote the development of research projects.
Furthermore, the main novelty of this edition is that the projects have been able to optionally present a letter of support issued by a patient association in which the expected impact of the results of the research project aimed at health care is explained, improvement in the health and quality of life of patients, an aspect that has been positively valued when selecting the award-winning projects. In this case, the project has had the support of the Association Against Cancer in Bizkaia.

Marta Moreno, vice president of the AstraZeneca Foundation, and director of Corporate Affairs and Market Access at AstraZeneca highlighted: “this seventh edition of the Awards consolidates our commitment to young researchers and initiatives that allow us to support, encourage and raise the recognition of science and those who give it life. The AstraZeneca Foundation is proud to promote innovation between research groups from different autonomous communities through network projects, which facilitate obtaining results, working collaboratively and jointly. This is the way to provide answers to new challenges to improve people's lives.”

For his part, Rick R. Suárez, president of the AstraZeneca Foundation and president of AstraZeneca Spain, has indicated that “AstraZeneca's fundamental purpose in granting these awards is to drive innovation and promote excellence in scientific research. Because we firmly believe that the next generation of researchers has the power to transform the global health landscape and find solutions to the great medical challenges of our time. Spain is one of the countries that contributes the most to the development of new medicines, we are leaders in research, scientific talent and infrastructure. This situation of leadership in research must be in line with the opportunity for access to it that patients must have. It is crucial that institutions, organizations and all actors in the health chain understand the great value that innovation brings to our society.”

About AstraZeneca Foundation

The AstraZeneca Foundation is a non-profit organization created to support both health professionals and researchers in their different fields, as well as to collaborate with public and private institutions and patient associations. All of this with the aim of bringing scientific knowledge closer to society and improving the quality of life of both patients and their environment. The main activities carried out by the Foundation focus on promoting science and research in Spain through public-private collaboration to promote scientific talent and contribute to improving the quality of life and well-being of people.

About CIC bioGUNE

The Centre for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC bioGUNE), member of the Basque Research & Technology Alliance (BRTA), located in the Bizkaia Technology Park, is a biomedical research organisation conducting cutting-edge research at the interface between structural, molecular and cell biology, with a particular focus on generating knowledge on the molecular bases of disease, for use in the development of new diagnostic methods and advanced therapies.

About Ikerbasque

Ikerbasque - Basque Foundation for Science - is the result of an initiative of the Department of Education of the Basque Government that aims to reinforce the commitment to scientific research by attracting, recovering and consolidating excellent researchers from all over the world. Currently, it is a consolidated organization that has 290 researchers/s, who develop their work in all fields of knowledge.

About BRTA

BRTA is an alliance of 4 collaborative research centres (CIC bioGUNE, CIC nanoGUNE, CIC biomaGUNE y CIC energiGUNE) and 12 technology centres (Azterlan, Azti, Ceit, Cidetec, Gaiker, Ideko, Ikerlan, Lortek, Neiker, Tecnalia, Tekniker and Vicomtech) with the main objective of developing advanced technological solutions for the Basque corporate fabric.

With the support of the Basque Government, the SPRI Group and the Provincial Councils of the three territories, the alliance seeks to promote collaboration between the research centres, strengthen the conditions to generate and transfer knowledge to companies, contributing to their competitiveness and outspreading the Basque scientific-technological capacity abroad.

BRTA has a workforce of 3,500 professionals, executes 22% of the Basque Country's R&D investment, registers an annual turnover of more than 300 million euros and generates 100 European and international patents per year.

Spanish version