Eduard Batlle Gómez
Medical Research 2021ICREA Research Professor. Barcelona Institute for Biomedical Research.
(Barcelona, aged 51)
PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Barcelona. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in Utrecht with Professor Clevers and a brief collaboration with Professor Beato in Germany, he joined the IRB in Barcelona in 2004. At the institute, he heads the cancer science programme. His research explores the link between the biology of colon stem cells and colorectal cancer (CRC), and the mechanisms involved in tumour metastasis and immune evasion. His laboratory is an international leader in the field, and his work is pioneering. Several of his discoveries have been key to understanding CRC and have led to new therapeutic approaches that are currently being tested in patients.
In 2007, he received an ERC Starting Grant, followed by an ERC Advanced Grant in 2013 and another in 2017. His career has been recognised with various awards, including the 2019 City of Barcelona Prize for Biomedical Research, the 2016 Carmen and Severo Ochoa Foundation Prize, the Lilly Foundation Award for Preclinical Studies in 2014, and the Pezcoller Foundation–EACR Cancer Researcher Award.
The jury for the Rei Jaume I Prize for Biomedical Research, meeting in Valencia, has unanimously decided to award the 2021 prize to Mr Eduard Batlle Gómez
For his pioneering work in the immunobiology of colorectal cancer. His key contributions include the discovery of the stem cell hierarchy within the tumour and the importance of TGF-beta signalling in the growth and communication of tumour cells.
The elucidation of these mechanisms offers dramatic potential for immunotherapy and the control of metastases in these challenging tumours.
