Merck Salud Foundation launches new biomedical research projects at the UB
Multiple sclerosis, breast cancer and human reproductive medicine are the research fields of the projects of the UB environment to be funded in the frame of the 28th call for the grants of the Clinical Research Merck Salud Foundation. Under the motto “Research, the base of everything”, the initiative launched by the Foundation -created by the chemical and pharmaceutical company Merck to support biomedical research- will fund seven projects in Spain -which have been selected from a total of 253 candidacies.
Multiple sclerosis, breast cancer and human reproductive medicine are the research fields of the projects of the UB environment to be funded in the frame of the 28th call for the grants of the Clinical Research Merck Salud Foundation. Under the motto “Research, the base of everything”, the initiative launched by the Foundation -created by the chemical and pharmaceutical company Merck to support biomedical research- will fund seven projects in Spain -which have been selected from a total of 253 candidacies.
Ana Sevilla, Ramon y Cajal researcher from the Department of Cellular Biology, Physiology and Immunology of the Faculty of Biology of the UB, receives this award from the Merck Salud Foundation to carry out the project Generació de minicervells per a lʼestudi de la neurodegeneració i neuroinflamació en pacients amb esclerosi multiple.
In the field of immuno-oncology, lecturer Aleix Prat, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the UB and Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, was selected for his project Caracterització dels limfòcits T CD8/PF1+ en cancer de mama avançat receptor hormonal-positiu amb un fenotip agressiu HER2-enriched.
Regarding human fertility, researchers Dolors Manau, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the UB and Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, and Laia Rodríguez-Revenga (Hospital Clínic), were awarded for launching the project Avaluació de lʼefecte de lʼexpansió del gen FMR1 sobre la reserve ovàrica end ones joves portadores de la permutació.
The new call will give grants to the biomedical research projects led by M. Pilar Berges (University Hospital Ramón y Cajal); María Antonia Salud (University Hospital Arnau de Vilanova de Lleida); Abel López-Bermejo, from the Girona Biomedical Research Institute Josep Trueta, and José Antonio Sánchez (University Pablo de Olavide, Seville). This year, the first grant Fundación Merck Salud Investigación en Resultados de Salud to the expert Gabriel Sanfélix, from the Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research of Valencia Region.
The grants were given on June 28, in the Royal Theatre in Madrid, in a ceremony presided by the general director of Disability Support Policies from the Ministry of Health, Consumer Affairs and Social Welfare, Jesús Celada; the director of the Spanish Agency of Medicine and Health Devices, María Jesús Lamas, and the director general of Planning, Research and Training in the administrative unit of Madrid, Teresa Chavarría.
Other participants in the ceremony were the director of the Institute of Health Carlos III, Raquel Yotti; the vice-rector for research from the Autonomous University of Madrid, José Manuel González, the head of the research group of the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute, Biola María Javierre; the president of the Board of Trustees of the Merck Salud Foundation and director general of Mercka Spain, Marieta Jiménez, and the executive president of Merck Salud Foundation, Carmen González-Madrid.