Pere Roca-Cusachs receives the City of Barcelona Award in the Life Sciences category
The award ceremony for the City of Barcelona 2017 awards took place on February 15. The awardee under the category of Life Sciences was Pere Roca-Cusachs, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciencesmembre, the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia.
The award ceremony for the City of Barcelona 2017 awards took place on February 15. The awardee under the category of Life Sciences was Pere Roca-Cusachs, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciencesmembre, the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia.
The researcher was awarded for his study, published in the journal Cell, in which he identifies a mechanism through which tissue rigidity regulates cell proliferation and survival, as well as it implications on diseases such as cancer and liver and lung fibrosis. The jury, formed by Patrick Aloy (president), Juan Valcárcel, Cristina Pujades, Elena Casacuberta, and Neus Agell, gave the award to the IBEC-UB researcher unanimously.
Pere Roca-Cusachs is a lecturer at the Department of Biomedicine of the UB and leads a research group at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC). Graduated in Physics, he then got his PhD in Cell Mechanics and Biophysics at the University of Barcelona. In 2010, after a post-doctoral stay in Columbia University, he created his own research group and teaching program at the UB. Two years later he joined IBEC, where he leads a research group that studies the molecular mechanisms through which cells detect mechanical stimuli, such as forces or tissue rigidity, as well as their implications on development, cancer, and wound healing. He obtained funding from several Spanish and European sources, including Marie Curie Fellowships and a H2020 FET Proactive projects -which he coordinates. In 2016 he joined the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) as young investigator.