Borja Ibáñez awarded the Fundación Príncipe de Girona IMPULSA prize, which recognizes enterprising young talent

July 01 2010

Borja Ibáñez, of the department of Atherothrombosis and Cardiovascular Imaging at the CNIC, has been announced joint winner of the Premio IMPULSA Ciencia y Academia for his contribution to the field of Cardiology. He was presented with his award by Prince Felipe of Spain in an event broadcast live on the internet to 1900 universities in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking worlds.

The Premio Impulsa Ciencia y Academia is awarded to someone who has made significant contributions to research or teaching in the sciences (including social sciences) and who shows great potential.

Born in Madrid in 1975, Borja Ibáñez graduated in Medicine at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and received his doctorate from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He received his specialist training in Cardiology at the Fundación Jiménez Díaz in Madrid, where he began his clinical research. He then moved to the USA, where he began his training in basic and translational research at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. After several years in the USA, he was enticed back to Spain to undertake a pioneering project combining clinical work in interventional cardiology and coronary care at the Hospital Clínico San Carlos with cardiovascular research at the CNIC.

Dr. Ibañez directs a research group composed of basic researcher and clinical cardiologists. The group’s main area of interest is a continuation of his work begun in the USA, related to limiting the size of myocardial infarctions. In addition to studying possible protective mechanisms during an infarction, Dr. Ibáñez is leading a clinical trial aimed at demonstrating the possibility of limiting infarct size through very early pharmacological intervention (immediately after diagnosis, during transit to hospital). This project will test laboratory results on a cohort of patients with acute myocardial infarction. The effects of the interventions will be evaluated with advanced imaging technology (cardiac nuclear magnetic resonance imaging).