Miguel Beato Del Rosal
Medical Research 2020(Salamanca, aged 80). Doctor of Medicine, Group Leader at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG).
An expert in gene regulation in human cells, with an extensive and distinguished professional career that began in Germany, where he held a professorship in Molecular Biology until 2001, when he moved to Barcelona to found the CRG (Centre for Genomic Regulation), a world-leading centre. In recent years, his research has opened up new avenues for the treatment of breast cancer.
He was coordinator of the ERC Synergy Grant ‘4D Genome’ (2014–20) and was awarded an ERC Proof of Concept grant (2019–20). He has supervised 28 PhD theses and 16 Master’s theses. He has a total of 325 publications, with a total of 38,795 citations; h-index: 83; Citations per publication: 118.
The jury for the Rei Jaume I Prize for Biomedical Research, meeting in Valencia, has unanimously decided to award the 2020 prize to Mr Miguel Beato del Rosal.
Dr Beato carried out pioneering work with the discovery of certain proteins that act as receptors for steroid hormones, including the glucocorticoid receptor. He characterised the progesterone receptor and found that steroid receptors bind to specific regions of the DNA sequence, an important discovery for understanding the molecular basis of hormonal action. He also discovered how chromatin remodelling complexes modulate the structure of nucleosomes and gene transcription, helping to explain gene expression.
He founded the Centre for Genomic Regulation, which, under his leadership, has become one of the most renowned centres in southern Europe and is training numerous scientists.
In recent years, he has discovered a new mechanism for ATP production in the cell nucleus, independent of the already known mitochondrial pathway.
