Dr. Manel Esteller, director of the Cancer Epigenetics and Biology program of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), has been bestowed with The World Health Summit and Pfizer Award for Innovation in Biomedical Research. The award was delivered in Berlin during the World Summit Health, the most important international meeting on Health.

As the organizers explain, the award recognizes "highly innovative research in biomedical science to have a positive impact on human health." Special attention is paid to the potential of research to design a program of activities which generates a transition from basic laboratory knowledge to its practical application in hospitals."

Manel Esteller's work tackles health issues with a very high global impact and makes it possible to develop prospects for clinical application and a personalized treatment for chronic diseases with a high social impact such as cancer.

Furthermore, Cancer Cell – considered to be the most important journal in cancer research of the world - has just published a scientific discovery of Manel Esteller’s team about a ‘biological error’ that causes different types of cancer. According to this study, tumors of colon, stomach and uterus show an alteration of the exportin-5 protein, of which the function in a healthy cell is to give MicroRNAs a ride and transport them from the nucleus, so that it loses its protective antitumor capacity. Finding out this "biological malfunction” is the first step in a new line of research that we do not know exactly where it is taking us but, certainly, it has got a great potential in improving therapies," as Esteller said herself.

Manel Esteller is the director of Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program IDIBELL, research professor in ICREA (Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies) and associate professor at the University of Barcelona.