Oncologist at Spanish National Cancer Research Centre receives Burkitt Award

Posted on: 19 January 2018

The 2017 Burkitt Medal was presented by Provost Dr Patrick Prendergast to Professor Mariano Barbacid, AXA-CNIO Professor of Molecular Oncology at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, at a celebratory dinner earlier this month.

The award recognises people with the integrity, compassion and dedication matching that of Denis Burkitt, a Trinity graduate who is known for his discovery of Burkitt’s lymphoma. In her welcome address Professor Orla Sheils, Chair of the Selection Committee, Director of Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, remarked: "Professor Mariano Barbacid identified the first mutation associated with the development of human cancer, the finding which was seminal to the establishment of the molecular basis of human cancer. It is great honour for Trinity to have Professor Barbacid among Burkitt Medal recipients.”

Earlier in the day Professor Barbacid gave the Burkitt Lecture “Precision Medicine and Cancer: Challenges and Opportunities”.

The event was attended by cancer clinicians and researchers, representatives of the Irish Cancer Society, supporters of cancer research including the Friends of CROSS and UNIPHAR, the headline sponsor of CROSS Atlantic Cycle, a group that raises funds cancer research in Trinity and St James’s Hospital and other stakeholders.

The event was generously supported by AbbVie and Novartis.

About Mariano Barbacid Burkitt Medal Awardee 2017 

Mariano Barbacid is AXA-CNIO Professor of Molecular Oncology at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre in Madrid. Born in Madrid, Mariano Barbacid was awarded his PhD from the Universidad Complutense in 1974. Having trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Bethesda, Maryland, USA, in 1978 he started his own group to work on the molecular biology of human tumours. Dr Barbacid’s work led to the isolation of the first human cancer gene, H-RAS, in the spring of 1982 and to the identification of the first mutation associated with the development of human cancer. These findings, also made independently by two other groups, have been seminal to establish the molecular basis of human cancer.

Dr Barbacid’s achievements have been recognised widely. In 2012, he was inducted to the National Academy of Sciences of the US as a Foreign Member and in 2014, elected Fellow of the AACR Academy. He holds three Honorary degrees, and apart from being acknowledged for his achievements in Spain, Dr Barbacid received several international awards including the Steiner Prize (Bern, 1988), Ipsen Prize (Paris, 1994), Brupbaher Cancer Research Prize (Zurich, 2005), the Medal of Honour of the International Agency for Cancer Research (Lyon, 2007) and an Endowed Chair from the AXA Research Fund (Paris, 2011). He has received two Advanced Grants from the European Research Council since their inception in 2008. To date, Dr Barbacid has authored a total of 300 publications, including 221 original research articles in journals with impact factor, 32 invited reviews in refereed journals and 47 book chapters.

About Denis Parsons Burkitt – 1911-1993

Denis Parsons Burkitt, a surgeon and research scientist who is a household name in the medical profession received his BA in 1933 and graduated from Trinity as a physician in 1935. In Africa he developed exceptional observational and analytical skills which led him to develop a successful treatment for the commonest childhood cancer in Sub Saharan Africa – Burkitt lymphoma. His contributions to cancer remain salient today, and his discoveries continue to generate new research.