Dr Hernando del Portillo Receives Research Grant from Ramón Areces Foundation

Dr Hernando del Portillo, an ICREA Research Professor at ISGlobal, has been awarded a research grant from the Ramón Areces Foundation to study new uses of exosomes as mediators of intercellular communication and as therapeutic agents in three neglected parasitic diseases: Plasmodium vivax malaria, Chagas disease and fascioliasis.

On Tuesday, 7 April, the Ramón Areces Foundation awarded grants for research in the life and materials sciences to 45 pioneering research projects in various fields, including rare diseases, cancer, exosomes, interactomes, food safety, renewable energy, and high-temperature superconducting materials. The grant recipients were selected from among 827 candidates from all over Spain. One of the grants will fund a project led by Dr del Portillo, a researcher at ISGlobal, in collaboration with Dr Antonio Marcilla of the University of Valencia and Professor Antonio Osuna of the University of Granada. Grants were also awarded to two other researchers studying exosomes: Dr Juan Manuel Falcón of CIC bioGUNE and Dr Maria Yañez-Mo of the Severo Ochoa Centre for Molecular Biology. All of the grant recipients working in this new area of research belong to the Spanish Research and Innovation Group on Extracellular Vesicles (GEIVEX).

"Surprisingly, exosomes were virtually unknown until recently", commented Hernando del Portillo. "They were considered by-products of the cellular metabolism. This perception has changed dramatically since the discovery of their role as mediators involved in the transmission of biological signals as well as their potential use in diagnostics and new therapeutic strategies in cancer and other diseases, including parasitic infections."

Carmen Vela, Spanish Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation, participated in the presentation of the grants. "More private participation is needed in scientific development", she commented. "We need to use public-private cooperation to create academic, institutional and business links that will help to improve R&D&I."