ICGEB is extremely pleased to announce the projects awarded as the best grants for 2022 by its international review Committee.
ICGEB has been providing funding opportunities through its Grants programme for over 30 years. Since 2020, it awards two annual prizes for the grants considered to be the best example of what is intended by the ICGEB CRP Research Grant programme: combining high quality research addressing scientific problems of particular relevance with an excellent training component and interaction with other countries.
Meet the CRP Outstanding Award winners for 2022:
Principal Investigator: Dr. Javier Palatnik, Instituto de Biología Celular y Molecular de Rosario (IBR), Argentina, for the project entitled: Control of cellular programs by microRNAs in plants.
The Committee remarked that the project by Dr. Palatnik investigated the role of a microRNA in the control of plant cellular programs such as plant regeneration and paves the way to its possible applications for improvement in crop health and production. They considered the project to be very well executed, resulting both in novel breakthrough data published in high level publications directly in line with the project goals as well as in the training of young scientists in the latest techniques and approaches in plant molecular biology.
Principal Investigator: Boris Rogelj, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Slovenia, for the project entitled: Regulation of intracellular complexes formed by dipeptide repeats from C9ORF72 mutation.
The award to Dr. Rogeli was found to investigate the role of certain mutations in a gene, which is a major genetic cause of two neurogenerative diseases: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD). These mutations lead to the production of dipeptide repeat proteins that accumulate as aggregates and contribute to ALS and FTLD.
ICGEB CRP Grants represent a dedicated source of funding aimed at financing projects addressing original scientific problems of particular relevance for the host country and of regional interest and constitute one of the Organisation’s most popular programmes, enjoying worldwide recognition amongst awardee scientists.