The Chairman of Banco Sabadell, Mr Josep Oliu, has given out the 16th Banco Sabadell Foundation Award for Biomedical Research and the 5th Banco Sabadell Foundation Award for Science and Engineering to Dr Guadalupe Sabio and Professor Ana Tajadura-Jiménez. The award ceremony, which took place at the corporate headquarters of Banco Sabadell in Sant Cugat del Vallès, lauded the lines of research of the award winners and the commitment of the Banco Sabadell Foundation to promoting research and knowledge in these fields.

The panel of judges for the 16th edition of the Banco Sabadell Foundation Award for Biomedical Research, presided over by Dr Oscar Marín, recognised Dr Guadalupe Sabio Buzo, a CNIC researcher with a PhD from the University of Extremadura, in collaboration with the British Medical Research Council in Dundee (Scotland), for her research on understanding why obesity causes cardiometabolic diseases.

Her studies analyse factors that arise in people with obesity, such as the alteration of fat mass, the deregulation of internal clocks, and cellular stress, which could cause the onset of these diseases. In particular, she is interested in understanding the role of body fat mass as an endocrine organ that regulates the development of diseases linked to obesity, such as diabetic cardiomyopathy. In fact, her studies have shown that the reason men are more prone to cancer than women may be due to differences in the endocrine function of their body fat mass.

Dr Guadalupe Sabio is a researcher at CNIC, where she leads a team of 10 researchers. Dr Sabio studies the role of the stress kinase signalling pathway in the development of metabolic diseases and cancer. Her results show that p38 could become a good therapeutic target for inflammatory diseases in the fight against the side effects of obesity and in the treatment of fatty liver and liver cancer. Her work in these fields has been published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Cell Metabolism, PNAS, Plos Biol, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Nature Communications and the EMBO Journal.

Guadalupe’s team is also involved in many activities to promote science among children and especially to motivate young girls. To this end, the team has organised and participated in a number of outreach events, school talks, and various science fairs.

The Banco Sabadell Foundation Award for Science and Engineering, organised in collaboration with BIST (Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology), is celebrating its 5th edition this year. The panel of judges for the award, presided over by Professor Andreu Mas-Colell, has recognised Professor Ana Tajadura-Jiménez, a UC3M Researcher with a PhD in Psychoacoustics from the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, for her research into the design of sensory technology to change people’s perception of their own bodies in real time, creating Body Transformation Experiences.

Dr Ana Tajadura-Jiménez is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at Carlos III University in Madrid and at the University College London Interaction Centre. The multidisciplinary research of Professor Ana Tajadura-Jiménez ranges from engineering and psychoacoustics to human-computer interaction (HCI) and cognitive neuroscience. She is passionate about the use of wearable technology to promote people’s physical and emotional well-being.

Throughout her research career, she has led international multidisciplinary teams and projects, which have focused on advancing research into body perception through technology and designing body-centred interfaces that support people’s needs. She has worked with physicians on studies with physically inactive people and people with chronic pain, eating disorders and strokes.

Her research won her the Excellence Award in 2019 from the Social Council (Consejo Social) of the Carlos III University in Madrid. She also recently received a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council to carry out research, over the next five years, into new paradigms and technology for Body Transformation Experiences, and to study their impact on motor and emotional/social skills. Her research has been published in more than 45 journal articles, 4 book chapters, and more than 100 contributions to scientific conferences. Professor Tajadura-Jiménez is very committed to the public dissemination of science and the role of women in science and technology.