This year, the Catalan Biology Society (SCB), the first sister society of the Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC), has convened for the first time five awards in order to reward the stakeholders - people or institutions – that have contributed to the development and dissemination of Biological Sciences within Catalan-speaking territory. These awards are to be convened annually and aim to become a reference event for the entire scientific community in the country: the Biology Night.

This year, the Biology Night will be held on 7 July at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), home of the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences (DCEXS) at Pompeu Fabra University, host institution of the event’s 1^st edition. During the ceremony, and as part of a reception and a buffet, the SCB will award the prizes.

In this first edition, the SCB  professional career Award -the most honorific of all the prizes given- will distinguish the world acclaimed commitment and scientific work of Joan Massagué i Solé, director of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Massagué is a pharmacist who obtained his PhD in biochemistry from the University of Barcelona. In 1979 he started his adventure through America, first at Brown University, later at the University of Massachusetts, and then at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where he has held the position of Director since 2014. From the United States, Massagué has been linked to important institutions in our country, such as the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona). "Cancer", "metastases", "stem cells" and "TGF-beta" are, among others, keywords that identify Massagué’s work, embodied in a total of three hundred and twenty-six published papers, honoured with more than twenty awards, and recognized last year as "Highly Cited Researcher" by Thomson Reuters.

The Biology Night

The Biology Night is an initiative at which the SCB, along with the scientific community, partners and supporters of the organization, and the general public, will celebrate the achievements accomplished during the current year by Biological Sciences professionals and scholars in Catalan-speaking territory.

SCB Award Finalists for a scientific article

• Alfredo Mayor Aparicio, for “Changing Trends in P. Falciparum Burden, Immunity, and Disease in Pregnancy”
• David Martínez Alba, for “Miocene small-bodied ape from Eurasia sheds light on hominoid evolution”
• Marta Melé Messeguer, for “The human transcriptome across tissues and individuals”

SCB Award Finalists for dissemination

• David Bueno i Torrens, for ”100 gens que ens fan humans” (100 genes that make us human)
• Jaume Llistosella Vidal i Antoni Sànchez-Cuxart, for ”Guia il·lustrada per a conèixer els arbres” (Illustrated guide to identifying trees)
• Televisió de Catalunya, for ”Quequicom: Estudiant el canvi climàtic al Pirineu“ (Whatwhohow: Studying climate change in the Pyrenees)

Finalists for the SCB Young Investigator Award

• Bruno Di Stefano, for “C/EBPα poises B cells for rapid reprogramming into induced pluripotent stem cells”
• Anna Soler i Membrives, for ”Contribució a l’estudi de les aranyes de mar (Pycnogonida): biogeografia de les espècies antàrtiques i biologia alimentària de les espècies” (Contribution to the study of sea spiders(Pycnogonida): biogeography of Antarctic species and food biology of species)
• Eva M. Novoa Pardo, for ”Evolution of the gene translation machinery and its applications to drug discovery”

SCB Award Finalists baccalaureate studies research work

• “La bioacumulació i biomagnificació del mercuri” (Bioaccumulation and biomagnification of mercury), Robert Cilleros Mañé, Antoni de Martí i Franquès High School of Tarragona.
• “Estudi de la biodiversitat de Cala Morell de Menorca” (Study of the biodiversity of Cala Morell, Menorca), Montserrat Herbera Ribas, Les Corts High School, Barcelona.
• “Els ocells de la seu” (The birds of the seat), Joaquim Minoves Ribes,  Joan Pelegrí centre, Barcelona.

The Catalan Biology Society is one of the most traditional and active scientific societies in our country. It currently has some 1,500 members of whom 80% are doing active research in our universities or research centres. The SCB scientific symposia are long traditional and are meeting points that allow researchers to establish highly efficient close collaboration networks. The SCB organizes performances around its 19 thematic sections on the most current aspects of basic and applied biology, and 6 regional sections. It also gathers a large number of secondary school teachers and others close to the BIO field. For all these reasons, the SCB is undoubtedly the meeting point of reference for those interested in biology in Catalonia.