The VIII Edition of Gemma Rossell i Romero Prize was held on 8, 9, 10 May, granted to the students in Health Sciences that dedicate part of their time to research, and has become a referent in its sphere of action. In this year's event the third prize has been awarded to Gisela Gabernet Garriga for the work “Aberrant activation of DFF40/CAD endonuclease causes distinct apoptotic nuclear phenotypes in human neuroblastoma-derived cells”, carried out in the Institut de Neurociències and the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department at the Faculty of Medicine in the UAB, under the direction of Dr Víctor Yuste.
Dr. Carlos A. Saura, Associate Professor at the Institut de Neurociències-UAB, has received the ICREA Acadèmia Award 2011. The ICREA Academia award of the Catalan government distinguishes the top academic researchers over a 5-year period. Dr. Saura investigates the role of genes implicated in Alzheimer´s disease and other dementias on brain function and neurodegeneration. Particularly, Dr. Saura´s research focuses on molecular mechanisms regulating transcriptome changes during memory processing during normal and pathological aging. He has employed pioneering approaches to generate novel transgenic and knockout mouse models that are used for assessing novel therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer´s disease and other age-related cognitive disorders.