The FERO Foundation awards 240.000 euros in grants for cancer research on its 10th anniversary

The 10th Anniversary of the FERO Translational Cancer Research Grants has for the first time brought together 17 of the 18 researchers who have been awarded grants by the foundation
FERO is a private foundation, a pioneer in promoting translational cancer research in Spain.

The winning projects will explore new possibilities of liquid biopsies in breast and prostate cancer as well as innovative approaches for more effective immunotherapy.

Barcelona, 21 May 2019. The FERO Foundation, dedicated to promoting cancer research, has awarded the 16th FERO Grants for Translational Cancer Research, which in 2019 celebrate their tenth anniversary. Another specific grant was awarded for breast cancer research. The foundation has awarded a total of €240,000 euros (€80,000 per grant) to research seeking to explore new possibilities of liquid biopsies in breast and prostate cancer as well as innovative approaches to more effective immunotherapy.

”The purpose of the FERO grant is to promote translational research in oncology in order to bring the benefits of the research to patients in the shortest possible time”, explains Sol Daurella, Chair of the FERO Foundation. ”Our commitment is to foster first-class scientific output. In Spain there are researchers and leading research centres spearheading this work, enabling us to gradually make advances in the fight against a disease that has become one of the main social and health problems facing our society today”, concludes Daurella.

The researchers who received the award in this edition are Dr Asís Palazón, researcher at CIC bioGUNE in Bilbao, for his project ‘Focusing on the epigenome of the immune system for the next generation of immuno-oncology’; Dr Joaquin Mateo, researcher at the VHIO in Barcelona, for ‘Innovative approaches to the application of liquid biopsies in prostate cancer to report on precision medicine’, and Doctors Violeta Serra and Judith Balmaña, from the VHIO in Barcelona, for their ‘Development of a liquid biopsy test to determine the homologous recombination in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers in breast cancer to aid in the subsequent choice of therapy’.

“They are all translational cancer research projects carried out by young researchers from research centres in this country renowned for their excellence”, states Dr Andrés Cervantes, Chairman of the Panel of Judges for the FERO Foundation Grants. “A differential aspect in translational research is the transmission of the results of basic research to clinics; this enables the time it takes to develop new therapies and for the patients to benefit from the scientific advances against cancer to be shortened”, concludes Cervantes.

The grants were officially awarded at a charity dinner which the foundation organises twice a year in Barcelona, sponsored for another year running by Andbank. Noteworthy among the 800 attendees was the presence of 17 of the 18 researchers who have been awarded grants in the last ten years, and who were invited for the 10th anniversary event.

Since its beginnings, the FERO Foundation has invested more than 14 million euros in research, 1.3 million of which have been grants. The Foundation has financed more than 50 translational research projects and has established partnerships with more than a dozen national research centres of excellence.