Professor Fàtima Bosch admitted to the Royal Academy of Science and Arts of Barcelona
Fàtima Bosch Tubert, professor in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and director of CBATEG, was recently elected a full member of the Royal Academy of Science and Arts of Barcelona (RACAB). In the investiture ceremony, which took place on 31 March, Professor Bosch read her report on gene therapy, entitled “Teràpia gènica: una nova eina per al tractament de malalties minoritàries i d’alta prevalença”.
01/04/2022
The election of Professor Fàtima Bosch as a full member of the RACAB represents an important recognition to her extensive and brilliant scientific trajectory and her contributions to the application of transgenic animal generation techniques and gene therapy for the study of physiopathologies ad the treatment of several metabolic and degenerative diseases and alterations. Attending the investiture ceremony were UAB Rector Javier Lafuente and Vice Rector for Research and Transfer Armand Sánchez.
In her acceptance speech, Professor Bosch demonstrated how gene therapy is a promising tool for more efficient treatments of diseases in which traditional therapies are not enough. Dr Bosch outlined some of the most important results achieved during her professional career, including those already in the clinical development phase: a treatment capable of correcting in the long-term mucopolysaccharidosis types III, a devastating group of monogenic metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders. Fàtima Bosch also pointed out an important milestone in her research, the correction of animal models with type 1 diabetesand another treatment for type 2 diabetes, highly associated with obesity. “Studies with a large translational protential”, she highlighted, “which show that gene therapy opens up a new horizon towards curing not only monogenic disorders, but also highly prevalent diseases”.
Fàtima Bosch's acceptance speech was followed by a speech by academic member Ernest Giralt i Lledó.
A leader in gene therapy
Fàtima Bosch (Figueres, 1957) is a UAB researcher and lecturer since 1984. She pioneered the study of gene therapy, always with the objective of curing metabolic diseases. In 1990 she created the first laboratory of transgenic animals in Spain, located at the UAB, and in 2003 the laboratory became known as the CBATEG (Centre for Animal Biotechnology and Gene Therapy), a centre she continues to direct and which has yielded relevant scientific results globally.
In 1992 she co-founded the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy. She was vice president of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), president of the Spanish Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, and associate editor of the journal Human Gene Therapy, specialising in the field of gene therapy. Currently she is member of the Gene Doping Expert Group of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
As researcher, she has been awarded the Rey D. Juan Carlos I Award, the Francisco Grande Covián Award, the Narcís Monturiol Medal from the Government of Catalonia, the Saint George Cross, the Alberto Sols Award, the ICREA Acadèmia Award, the Jacob’s Ladder Norman Saunders International Research Prize and the UAB Social Council Tranfer Prize.