The Doctor Juan Abarca International Award in Medical Sciences, known as the Abarca Prize, is an award that recognises research and innovation through a biomedical finding of global significance.

Background

Created in 2020 by the Fundación de Investigación HM Hospitales, it is awarded to the scientific or medical career of a person who has made a significant contribution to the protection, improvement or rehabilitation of people's health. The award, endowed with 100,000 euros, is inspired by the Spanish surgeon Juan Abarca Campal, founder of HM Hospitales. The jury, appointed by the Fundación de Investigación HM Hospitales, is made up of members of the scientific community.

Abarca Prize

2021

The first edition of the award was held in October 2021. The award ceremony was chaired by King Felipe VI. The jury was headed by Alberto Muñoz, professor at the Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas de Madrid (IIBM) and included Richard Horton, editor of

The Lancet ''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal, founded in England in 1823. It is one of the world's highest-impact academic journals and also one of the oldest medical journals still in publication. The journal publishes ...

, Silvia G. Priori, scientific director of the ICS Maugeri Hospital, palaeoanthropologist

Juan Luis Arsuaga Juan Luis Arsuaga Ferreras (born 1954 in Madrid) is a Spanish paleoanthropologist and author known for his work in the Archaeological Site of Atapuerca, Atapuerca Archaeological Site. He obtained a master's degree and a doctorate in Biology, Bi ...

, and Federico de Montalvo, former president of the Spanish Bioethics Committee. The Abarca Prize was awarded to Professor Jean-Laurent Casanova for his findings in the field of human infections and the genetic variations that affect a person's ability to fight them. Dr. Casanova is a researcher at Rockefeller University Hospital in New York and director of the St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics and Infectious Diseases.

2022

In 2022 the prize was awarded to Professor Philippe J. Sansonetti of the

Pasteur Institute The Pasteur Institute (, ) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax and rabies. Th ...

for his research on

Shigellosis Shigellosis, known historically as dysentery, is an infection of the intestines caused by ''Shigella'' bacteria. Symptoms generally start one to two days after exposure and include diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, and feeling the need to pass ...

or bacillary dysentery. This diarrheal disease caused by the bacterium

Shigella ''Shigella'' is a genus of bacteria that is Gram negative, facultatively anaerobic, non–spore-forming, nonmotile, rod shaped, and is genetically nested within ''Escherichia''. The genus is named after Kiyoshi Shiga, who discovered it in 1 ...

causes thousands of deaths annually in developed countries, mainly affecting children. The jury was composed of Professors Juan Luis Arsuaga, Silvia Priori, Jean-Laurent Casanova and Federico de Montalvo, and was chaired by Professor Alberto Muñoz, from the Institute of Biomedical Research of Madrid (IIB- CSIC). The award was presented by the Spanish Secretary of State for Health, Silvia Calzón.

2023

Professor

Douglas A. Melton Douglas A. Melton is an American medical researcher who is the Harvard University Professor, Xander University Professor at Harvard University, and was an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute until 2022. Melton is a co-director of ...

, won the III Abarca Prize in its 2023 call, for his advances towards a cure for diabetes. Douglas A. Melton is co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, a Howard Hughes Institute of Medicine investigator and an investigator at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Melton's research has pioneered the process of converting stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells, which would enable cell replacement therapy for type 1 diabetes. The award was presented by the Spanish Minister of Health, José Miñones.

2024

The immunologist Carl H. June, director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, was awarded the fourth prize for the discovery of a revolutionary therapy for treating

blood cancers Tumors of the hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues (American English) or tumours of the haematopoietic and lymphoid tissues (British English) are tumors that affect the blood, bone marrow, lymph, and lymphatic system. Because these tissues are all ...

based on cellular engineering. The

CAR-T In biology, chimeric antigen receptors (CARs)—also known as chimeric immunoreceptors, chimeric T cell receptors or artificial T cell receptors—are receptor proteins that have been engineered to give T cells the new ability to target a specific ...

(chimeric antigen receptor) cell therapy harnesses the body's own

immune system The immune system is a network of biological systems that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to bacteria, as well as Tumor immunology, cancer cells, Parasitic worm, parasitic ...

to fight cancer. Carl H. June is the Richard W. Vague Professor of Immunotherapy at the Vague School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2024, his scientific team is working to apply this treatment to other solid

neoplasm A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

autoimmune disease An autoimmune disease is a condition that results from an anomalous response of the adaptive immune system, wherein it mistakenly targets and attacks healthy, functioning parts of the body as if they were foreign organisms. It is estimated tha ...

s (such as

lupus Lupus, formally called systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue in many parts of the body. Symptoms vary among people and may be mild to severe. Common ...

) and other non-oncological diseases. The jury for the 4th edition was made up of Professors Silvia Priori, who chaired the jury, Philippe J. Sansonetti, Pura Muñoz-Cánoves, Sandra Myrna Diaz, Federico de Montalvo,

and the winner of the 2023 call, Professor

. Dr June was received by King Felipe VI after the award ceremony, together with Juan Abarca Cidón, President of HM Hospitales, Elena Abarca Cidón, Vice-President of HM Hospitales, and Alberto Muñoz Terol, President of the HM Hospitales Research Foundation.

Abarca Prize Calls

References

{{Reflist

External links

Abarca Prize

Fundación de Investigación HM Hospitales
Science and technology awards Medicine awards