The BBVA Foundation has decided its 2007 call for six Biomedicine Chairs, enabling the attachment of leading international specialists to Spanish groups of excellence working at basic and clinical research centers. The Chairs are funded with a combined amount of 1.2 million euros.
The aim of these Chairs is to facilitate knowledge transfer and strengthen cooperative ties between world-class teams and centers in Spain and international researchers who have made particularly significant contributions in their specialist fields. Further ahead, it is hoped they will contribute to improving the quality of healthcare available to citizens.
The selection of the Chairs, with a duration of between six months and a maximum of one year, was entrusted to an independent review panel. Three of the Biomedicine Chairs are awarded for basic research and another three for clinical research, each one financed with up to 200,000 euros.
BASIC BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH
In basic research, the BBVA Foundation Chair will facilitate the incorporation of Tamas Horvath, Professor of Comparative Medicine and Neurobiology at Yale University (United States) to the team led by Luis Miguel García Segura at the Instituto Cajal- CSIC (Madrid). The focus of their work will be on understanding the cellular contributions of various hormones to perinatal stress-induced alterations in brain functions.
The second basic research Chair goes to Hari Reddi, Lawrence J. Ellison Chair in Musculoskeletal Molecular Biology at the University of California, Davis (United States). Dr. Reddi will work with José Becerra’s team at the University of Malaga on a project dealing with the regeneration of damaged articular cartilage.
Anthony McNaughton, Sheild Professor and Head of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) will join Carlos Belmonte’s team at the Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante (University Miguel Hernández-CSIC). The aim of this research collaboration will be to elucidate how the temperature threshold of cold-sensitive ion channels is modulated at the molecular level,
CLINICAL BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH
The first Chair for clinical biomedical research has been awarded to Guadalupe García-Tsao, Professor of Medicine at Yale University (United States). She will work alongside Jaime Bosch and his team at the Hospital Clínic i Provincial-CIBERehd (Barcelona), exploring the non-invasive assessment of portal hypertension and its response to portal pressure-reducing pharmacological therapy.
Evan Balaban, Associate Professor on the Behavioral Neurosciences Program at McGill University (Canada), will join the team led by Manuel Desco at the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón (Madrid). Their shared research will focus on neuroimaging at the dawn of integrative brain function.
The third clinical research Chair goes to Richard Stanley Cooper, Professor of Medicine and Head of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology at Loyola University (United States). Cooper will work with Josep Redón’s group at Hospital Clínico de Valencia on the study of genetics and molecular medicine in cardiovascular risk.
The review panel for the 2007 BBVA Foundation Chairs in Biomedicine was formed by Jesús Ávila of the Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Center (CSIC-UAM, Madrid); Flora de Pablo, from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Madrid); Antonio López Farré, from Hospital Clínico San Carlos (Madrid); José M. Mato of CIC bioGUNE (Bilbao); Ricardo Moreno, from Hospital de la Princesa (Madrid); Juan Rodés, from Hospital Clínic i Provincial (Barcelona); and José Manuel Zubeldia, from Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón (Madrid).