The award goes to the publication “CCL21-loaded 3D hydrogels for T cell expansion and differentiation” published in Biomaterials, which resulted from Eduardo Pérez del Río’s PhD thesis, supervised by Imma Ratera and Judith Guasch, and which he defended with honors in April 2020.

In this project, researchers are trying to improve the expansion of immune cells which can be a limiting step in the application of current cancer immunotherapies. The final objective is to obtain a higher number of resulting cells of better quality, through the use of a 3D material named PEG-Hep hydrogel. Their work in this direction is still not finished, according to Eduardo Pérez:

“Currently I am still working on this project, improving the material we used and increasing the TRL of this technology”.

The price consisted of 400 € and an invitation to deliver a talk in the XV Jornadas Anuales CIBER-BBN celebrated on November 15-16, 2021 online, and in which other ICMAB researchers participated.

“I’m very glad for this prize which for me means the recognition of a good work in a very interesting project.”, says Eduardo Pérez.

More information

• Eduardo Pérez del Río receives an award for the best publications of 2020 by CIBER-BBN
• Congratulations, Dr. Eduardo Pérez, new ICMAB graduate! 
• New 3D printed hydrogels for T-cell growth to be used in cancer immunotherapy