Pere Roca-Cusachs winner of the SBE-40 prize 2018

by biofisica · Published 27/03/2018 · Updated 13/04/2018

The Executive Council of SBE has awarded the 2018 “Enrique Pérez-Payá” – SBE-40 prize to:

Pere Roca-Cusachs, IBEC and University of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain),

For his outstanding contributions to uncover the physical basis of cellular responses to mechanical signals.

About Dr. Pere Roca-Cusachs

Group leader at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia – IBEC and Associate professor at the University of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain).

Scientific Trajectory

Dr. Pere Roca-Cusachs obtained his PhD in cellular biophysics in 2007 from the Medical School at the University of Barcelona. He then worked in the lab of Prof. Michael Sheetz (Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University) as a post-doctoral researcher until 2011. In 2011, he joined the University of Barcelona, where he is now an associate professor. In 2012, he obtained a joint position as group leader at the Institute for bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC).

The research of his group focuses on unraveling the physical and molecular mechanisms by which cells detect and respond to mechanical signals. His contributions include the discovery of mechanisms explaining transcription factor mechanosensitivity (Elosegui-Artola et al., Cell 2017) or cell sensing of extracellular matrix properties such as mechanical rigidity (Elosegui-Artola et al., Nat. Cell Biol. 2016) and ligand distribution (Oria et al., Nature 2017). He is currently the coordinator of an EU-funded Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) project dedicated to understanding the mechanical control of biological function. He is a recipient of the EMBO Young Investigator award, and the 2017 City of Barcelona award to the life sciences.

More information

Please, visit the website of the Cellular and molecular mechanobiology group at IBEC.

About the “Enrique Pérez-Payá” – SBE-40 Prize

Awarded in memory of Dr. Enrique Pérez-Payá, SBE member who contributed to the development, translation and internationalization of Biophysics in Spain. He worked on peptide-membrane interactions and apoptosis and was a pioneer in the use of combinatorial chemistry to expand the chemical space for basic research and to develop peptide-based therapeutics. He was also an entrepreneur and always supportive of young biophysicists.

Addressed to

Biophysicist with age limit of 40 (in the year of publication of the call) who develope their main activity in Spain. Preference is given to members of SBE and to achievements from the last 10 years.