- The Aida Weiss Prize was established in 1984 to promote cancer research.
- It is divided into Scientific Career, Research Work, Postgraduate Thesis and Work, study or program carried out by civil society organizations or public/private institutions.
- Tumors are responsible for more than nine million deaths worldwide each year.
The time when cancer appeared is not known with certainty, although the first cases were recorded thousands of years ago. Since then it has never disappeared and today it is already a serious public health problem. Each year it causes more than nine million deaths. and the number is constantly increasing.
To stimulate oncology and genomics research applied to health by specialists and doctoral students, UNAM, through the University Health Research Program (PUIS), and the Weiss family, delivered the Aida Weiss Award. Recognition and Promotion of Oncology Research 2021.
While presiding over the ceremony, the secretary general of the UNAM, Leonardo Lomelí Vanegas, highlighted that he is a renowned award that for several years has honored outstanding researchers.
How did these awards come about?
There are few recognitions with this prestige that grant a considerable economic stimulus. “But, above all, that it fulfills this important function of making visible the effort that is made in research in its various categories, as it was initially in oncology research, and more recently in genomics.”
Speaking, the PUIS coordinator, Samuel Ponce de Leon Rosales, pointed out that the award, which is given each year in four categories, has the objective of: recognizing the trajectory of professionals whose contributions generate relevant advances in science; stimulate the development of original work; encourage high-level research in postgraduate students; and favor groups or civil societies whose programs respond to health problems in Mexico.
In 1984, he recalled, Mr. León Weiss and his sons Benny, Jaime and Jacobo established it, together with the UNAM, through the PUIS, in memory of Aida Steider Rutkowska de Weiss, to promote cancer research.
In 2014 the grandchildren of Aida Weiss: Yael Aida, Daniel and Joshua, reaffirmed their interest in continuing with this award, which is given to those selected by a jury in each of the categories.
The winners of this edition
The winners on this occasion were: Jesús Rafael Rodríguez Aguilera, postdoctoral researcher at the Helmholtz Institute for Metabolic, Obesity and Vascular Research, in the Postgraduate Thesis category, with the research Identification of Hydroxymethylome during Hepatocyte Differentiation, an indication in the study of liver cancer (PhD thesis in Sciences, Epigenetics area), with the tutorship of the researcher emeritus of the Institute of Cellular Physiology, Victoria Chagoya Hazas.
In the Scientific Career section, Eucario León Rodríguez, coordinator of the Department of Hematology and Oncology and head of the Adult Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Program of the Salvador Zubirán National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition (lNCMNSZ) was responsible.
One of the specialist’s main scientific contributions is in the area of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, where he developed a method adapted to available resources, which has allowed access to a greater number of patients, including those with low socioeconomic status. Outcomes similar to those reported in developed countries have been obtained.
Regarding the Research Work category, it was awarded to Benjamín Pineda Olvera, from the Neuro-Immunology Laboratory of the Manuel Velasco Suárez National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery (INNN), for the research carried out together with his collaborators: Malignant glioma therapy by vaccination with microvesicles derived from irradiated C6 cells, it promotes an antitumor immune response. The relevance of this work lies in focusing the bases for the use of microvesicles from tumor cells irradiated in vitro, as a therapeutic modality in the treatment of patients with various tumors.
Lastly, in the category Work, study or program carried out by civil society organizations and public or private institutions, the Comprehensive Cancer Clinic in the Elderly was designated, led by Dr. José Alberto Ávila Funes, head of the INCMNSZ Geriatrics.
Also read:
Meet the winners of the Aida Weiss Award 2018
Lung cancer, the one with the highest mortality in Latin America
Liver cancer, when can it be curable?