By the European Association for Cancer Research
We are delighted to announce that Stamatis Papathanasiou has been selected as the recipient of the 2024 EACR-Mark Foundation-Pezcoller Foundation Rising Star Award. This prestigious award, launched in 2023, recognises an exceptional cancer researcher each year and aims to support groundbreaking projects that have the potential to make significant contributions to the field.
Stamatis Papathanasiou, Group Leader at The Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB), in Mainz, Germany, was chosen for this award based on the high quality of his project proposal on ‘Mechanisms of cellular response to errors in mitosis: a new, non-genetic approach to an old question’. An independent review panel consisting of representatives of the EACR, The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research and the Pezcoller Foundation, unanimously chose him as the winner.
The EACR-Mark Foundation-Pezcoller Foundation Rising Star Award 2024 was open to EACR members with an unfunded Score ‘A’ cancer-related project from the 2023 ERC Starting Grant calls. The award grants the recipient up to €100,000 in funding to commence their project, with an additional 10% allocated for institutional overheads. The intention behind this award is to facilitate the advancement of exceptional cancer research by bridging the period before resubmission to the ERC.
Stamatis Papathanasiou commented, “Receiving this award is a huge honor and great support for our work. I am truly thankful to the EACR, the Pezcoller Foundation and The Mark Foundation for recognizing our research ideas and motivating us to further tackle unknowns in basic mechanisms of tumorigenesis.
“We are thrilled to move forward towards understanding how errors in mitosis affect chromatin organization and lead to epigenome instability. Our hope is to uncover unknown mechanisms of selective adaptation in cancer which would potentially expose vulnerabilities for novel therapeutic approaches.”
As part of the recognition, Stamatis will accept the award and deliver a presentation at the EACR 2024 Congress (Rotterdam, Netherlands, 10-13 June 2024). This gathering of leading scientists and researchers from around the world offers a platform to exchange knowledge, foster collaborations, and inspire new breakthroughs in cancer research.
Please join us in congratulating Stamatis on this well-deserved recognition and wishing him continued success in his groundbreaking research endeavours.
Look out for the 2025 Rising Star Award
Preparations are underway for the 2025 EACR-Mark Foundation-Pezcoller Foundation Rising Star Award. We encourage researchers and scientists in the field of cancer research to look out for the announcement in 2024 of the call for applications.
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About Stamatis Papathanasiou: Stamatis Papathanasiou is a Group Leader at the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB), Mainz, Germany. His research focuses on deciphering how errors during cell division could cause heritable transcriptional dysregulation and epigenetic instability, which can in turn contribute to cell senescence, ageing and cancer.
About the EACR: The European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) is a professional membership organisation dedicated to advancing cancer research through communication, collaboration, and dissemination of knowledge.
About the Mark Foundation: The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research is a philanthropic organisation committed to accelerating cancer research and translating discoveries into improved patient care.
About the Pezcoller Foundation: The Pezcoller Foundation promotes and supports scientific research in oncology and recognises outstanding contributions to the field.