The head of the research group on apoptosis and cancer of the IDIBELL, and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Barcelona, Joan Gil, has been awarded the I Fundación Valdés-Salas Award in Applied Biomedicine. The jury decided unanimously to grant this award to Joan Gil for his research in finding new treatments for leukemia and lymphoma in B cells.

The experimental work realized by the group led by Joan Gil in collaboration with the company Advancell has patented the use of Acadesine molecule that has successfully passed all the preclinical stages and led eventually to the development of a clinical trial, currently under course, for the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. This trial is the first carried out for cancer treatment from a patent generated by a group of the Spanish research public system.

The jury highlighted the work of Gil as an example of how a quality basic research, in contrast with scientific publications of considerable prestige, can lead to important practical applications in the field of medicine.

Fundación Valdés-Salas convenes for the first time this award in collaboration with the University of Oviedo and the companies Bayer, Cofas and Farmaindustria. The award aims to recognize the successful collaboration between researchers and companies. The aim is to reward research used by a company with a positive financial result.