Jordi Hernández, former PhD student at Juan Valcárcel’s laboratory and current CRG Entrepreneur in Residence has been awarded the CERCA Pioneer Prize.

The CERCA Pioneer Awards recognise those researchers who have presented a doctoral thesis with results that are clearly aimed at commercial exploitation. With the Pioneer Awards, the CERCA Institute supports researchers in early stages to be aware how valuable their results might be, not only in the scientific arena, but also in terms of their commercial or industrial applications.

The jury, composed by Eduard Balbuena (Enterprise Department at UAB), Josep Maria Pujals (IP lawyer at Oficina Ponti), Melba Navarro (Knowledge Transfer Technology Manager at CIMNE Tecnologia) and Roger Cabezas (Knowledge Manager at CERCA), decided on 13th December the following awardees:

• Dr Jordi Hernández Ribera, for his doctoral thesis “Regulation of NUMB alternative splicing by RBM10 and control of cancer cell proliferation” at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG).
• Dr Ibrahim Erdem Irtem, for his doctoral thesis “Production of solar fuels by photoelectrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide” at the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC).
• Dr Elena Martínez García, for her doctoral thesis “Protein signatures in uterine aspirates to improve diagnosis of endometrial cancer. The CEMARK project” at the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR).
• Dr Daniel Massó Vallés, for his doctoral thesis “Inhibiting Myc and the Myc dependent inflammatory response as cancer therapies”at the Vall d’Hebron Oncology Institute (VHIO).
• Dr Maria Valls Margarit, for her doctoral thesis “Development of an advanced 3D culture system for human cardiac tissue engineering” at Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC).