José Vicente Castell, winner of the Alberto Sols 2022 award in basic research

In the basic category, Dr. José Vicente Castell, head of the Experimental Hepatology and Liver Transplant research group and former director of IIS La Fe, who last year joined the Royal Academy of Medicine of the Valencian Community (RAMCV) as an academician of the society and was a disciple of Alberto Sols himself.

José Vicente Castell holds a PhD in Science, a PhD in Medicine and a degree in Pharmacy from the University of Valencia. He is Emeritus Professor of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Valencia, where he taught since 1985, Head of Section of the Experimental Hepatology Unit of the Research Centre of the Hospital La Fe, since 1980 and has been Director of Research at the Hospital Universitario La Fe and Director of the IIS La Fe between 2003 and 2016.

In his postdoctoral stage he furthered his studies at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and at the Max-Planck Institut Für Biophysikalisches Chemie in Göttingen.

He has been Professor of Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine of the Autonomous University of Madrid and at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Freiburg (Germany). In 1994 he stayed at the Biochemisches Institut der RTWA in Aachen (Germany).

He has supervised 14 doctoral theses and has participated in 57 research projects as principal investigator, most of them (20) European projects. He has taught specialisation courses in his discipline and has carried out various scientific activities of a consultative nature in international institutions.

He has published more than 395 scientific articles in international refereed journals as well as in different collective works, he has been editor of two specialised books (In vitro Methods in Pharmaceutical Research (Academic Press, London, 1997; ISBN 0-12-163390-X). In vitro alternatives to animal pharmaco-toxicology. J.V. Castell and M.J. Gómez-L. eds. Ed. Pharmaindustria, Madrid 1992. ISBN 84-87896-03-0) and has participated in more than 50 international congresses as an invited speaker.

In addition, Dr. Castell has received several awards and recognitions such as the European Pharmaceutical Research Award (EFPIA) in 1990, the Health 2000 Award of the Generalitat Valenciana in 2006 and the Encomienda de la Orden Civil de Sanidad in 2003. José Vicente Castell is a member of the Spanish Society of Biochemistry, the Spanish Society of Cell Biology and the Biochemical Society and has been a member of the jury for the Jaume I Awards in the categories of Medical Research and Clinical Medicine.

Other award winners

The "Alberto Sols" Award for the Best Scientific Work went to Doctor Ángel Barco, director of the Institute of Neurosciences of the UMH and the CESIC, of whom the scientific committee highlighted the international repercussion of his research, as well as the entire team with which this scientist works.

In the "Alberto Sols" Award for the Best Research Work, the prize was awarded ex aequo to three researchers. On the one hand, in the clinical category, to the Professor of Medicine and Head of the Internal Medicine Department at the General Hospital of Elche, Doctor Félix Gutiérrez, who has promoted a large number of clinical and epidemiological research projects on complications of HIV infection and antiretroviral treatment, many of them the result of collaboration with other groups.

And also in the basic modality, Dr Andrés Moya, who currently directs the FISABIO-University of Valencia Institutional Chair. He is the author of around five hundred publications in Genetics, Evolution and Philosophy of Biology. And also in the basic modality, Doctor Andrés Moya, currently directs the FISABIO-University of Valencia Institutional Chair. He is the author of around five hundred publications in Genetics, Evolution and Philosophy of Biology. 

The awards are sponsored by Sax City Council in collaboration with the Regional Ministry of Education, the Alicante Provincial Council and the Miguel Hernández University of Elche.