CNIO Lab Day 2022 winners. / Laura M. Lombardía. CNIO.
12th edition of the annual event in which "the scientific quality of the CNIO's young research staff is highlighted, as well as their dedication and altruistic attitude", says Marisol Soengas, Head of the CNIO's Dean's Office for Scientific Affairs.
"This year we have had a record participation among CNIO researchers in training, with almost a hundred papers submitted", says Rafael Leiro, coordinator of the Lab Day evaluation panel.
National Science and Research Award winner Arkaitz Carracedo shared his experience on how to successfully develop a scientific career: "Attitude multiplies the value of a scientist, beyond his or her knowledge and skills".
“Patience, perspective and perseverance”: according to Arkaitz Carracedo, these are some of the main qualities that young scientists must have to achieve success. But, in addition, they must “invest time in giving visibility to their work,” advised this researcher, winner of this year’s Margarita Salas National Young Research Award, to the dozens of pre- and postdoctoral researchers who participated in the 12th edition of the National Cancer Research Center’s (CNIO) Lab Day.
“Attitude multiplies our value as scientists, beyond knowledge and skills,” said Carracedo, Ikerbasque Research Professor at CIC bioGUNE.
CNIO Lab Day is organized by the Dean of Academic Affairs and the CNIO Student Association, CNIOSA. It gives young scientists the opportunity to showcase their achievements, as well as to hear advice and experiences from senior researchers.
“CNIO Lab Day is one of the activities we organize with the greatest interest, because it highlights the scientific quality of our young research staff, but also their dedication and altruistic attitude,” says Marisol Soengas, Head of the CNIO Dean’s Office for Scientific Affairs.
The CNIO’s Scientific Director, Maria A. Blasco, emphasized at the opening of the conference that “the CNIO is also a center of excellence in the training of new researchers”. The Lab Day consists primarily of presentations of research work by CNIO pre- and postdoctoral researchers.
“After three years, the Lab Day format at the CNIO has been revived with a call that has been a success,” say the members of CNIOSA, whose president, Ernesto López, has shared an award dedicated to dissemination. “It has been an opportunity to share scientific advances, but also a meeting place to get to know colleagues better over short distances”.
CNIOSA “has put a lot of enthusiasm and effort” in the organization of the event, including talks that have ranged from the scientific career to how to improve sustainability in science.
In addition to Carracedo the event included talks by Nikoline Borgermann (Sustainable Research Consultants, Ava Sustain), Guzmán Sánchez (European Climate Foundation), and Luliia Konko (Sustainable Packaging Specialist, Merck Life Science).
“This year we had a record participation among CNIO trainee researchers, with almost a hundred papers submitted,” says Rafael Leiro, coordinator of the Lab Day evaluation panel. “There were so many papers that we created a committee of 41 expert evaluators.”
Awards:
Cátia Monteiro, from the Brain Metastasis Group, for the paper Stratification of radiosensitive brain metastases based on an actionable S100A9/RAGE resistance mechanism (Nature Medicine).
Mónica P. de Andrés, of the Epithelial Carcinogenesis Group, for GATA4 and GATA6 loss-of-expression is associated with extinction of the classical program and poor outcome in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. (Gut)
Amanda Garrido, of the Growth Factors, Nutrients and Cancer Group, for the work Histone acetylation of bile acid transporter genes plays a critical role in liver cirrhosis (Journal of Hepatology).
Javier Lanillos, from the Hereditary Endocrine Cancer Group, for Significance of PARP1 Expression and PBRM1 Mutation as Biomarkers for Predicting the Response to Atezolizumab plus Bevacizumab or to Sunitinib in Patients with Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma. (Eur Urol)
Karolina Jodkowska, from the DNA Replication Group, for 3D chromatin connectivity underlies replication origin efficiency in mouse embryonic stem cells (Nucleic Acids Res).
Excellence Award (postdoctoral or senior researchers):
Carolina Villarroya, from the Cell Division and Cancer Group.
Dissemination and Awareness Award:
Míriam Rodríguez and Ernesto López, “for their support of the outreach and popularization activities of the center’s Dean of Scientific Affairs.” This award was presented by Emma Marín Santaolalla, from the Santa Lucía group, who has been collaborating with the “CNIO Friends” initiative for several years.
Oral presentations:
1st prize: Diego García López, from the Computational Oncology Laboratory.
2nd prize: Elena Blanco Romero, from the DNA Replication Group.
3rd prize: Sara Mellid López and Nerea Deleyto Seldas, from the Hereditary Endocrine Cancer Group and the Metabolism and Cell Signaling Group, respectively.
Posters:
Patricia Yagüe Sanz and María del Mar Rigual Abolaño.
David Gómez Sánchez and Carolina Hernández Oliver.
Maria Solé Ferrán, Johanne Le Coq and Samuel Miguez Amil.
T-shirt design award:
Natalia Cuervo Iturrioz
Best video award:
Anabel Sáez Mas
The event was supported by Fundación Jesús Serra, Merck, Promega and Eppendorf.