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06/07/2026 - Institutional news

Aura Muntasell wins the Vanguardia de la Ciència Award

She received 25 per cent of the votes in the fifteenth edition of these awards, organised by the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera and La Vanguardia.

A paper published in the journal Nature Immunology and led by Aura Muntasell, a researcher in the Immunity and Infection Research Group at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute (HMRIB) and a lecturer in the Department of Cell Biology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), has won the fifteenth edition of the Vanguardia de la Ciència Award. Organised by the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera and La Vanguardia, this prize recognises the research led by the HMRIB researcher as the most significant scientific research led by women in Spain over the past year.

From left to right: Sara Santana, Anna Rea, Aura Muntasell

Muntasell's study received 25 per cent of the votes cast by readers of La Vanguardia, beating the other seven nominees for the prize. She expressed her gratitude for this support, noting that the award offers "visibility that I hope will enable us to secure all the necessary resources to translate this preclinical research into a new reality for patients".

Gene editing to boost the immune system

The winning research has led to the development, in a mouse model, of a gene-editing strategy to enhance the effectiveness of natural killer (NK) cells, which are responsible for attacking infected or transformed cells. This enables them to resist the action of the two main molecules that tumours use to suppress the immune response.

La Vanguardia Science Award

This award aims to promote excellence in research and raise the profile of the significant contributions women are making to the field of science. It is awarded based on a weighted vote, combining the opinions of La Vanguardia readers and those of the Award's scientific advisory committee. The award ceremony will take place on 9 November at La Pedrera, coinciding with Science Week.

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