On December 12 and 13, with the support of AstraZeneca, we celebrated the FERO Retreat 2022, a gathering with our ‘feritos’; doctors and cancer researchers who, at some point in their professional careers, have received one of our FERO Grants to fund their translational oncology research projects.
And it was precisely some of these projects, and their results, that were the focus of the various presentations held at the Patio de la Infanta, the venue of the Fundación Ibercaja in Zaragoza and the main location for the event. These were presented by researchers such as Dr. Maurizio Scaltritti from AstraZeneca Spain, Dr. Alberto J. Schumacher from the Aragón Health Research Institute (IISA), Dr. María Abad from the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Dr. Aleix Prat from Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, and Dr. Nacho Melero from Clínica Universidad de Navarra (CUN).
We also featured a presentation by Rubén Ventura, director of FERO, who clearly stated the Foundation’s commitment: “As Dr. Baselga’s daughter, Clara Baselga, said at the XXII FERO Grants charity dinner, the cure for cancer is somewhere in this room. That is why at FERO we are committed to you and to the Grants, which are our greatest asset.”
The event was also attended by Dr. Jaume Mora, the first ‘ferito’ in our history and current scientific director of the Oncology and Hematology Service at Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona. It was an honor to have him present.
To energize the day, various coaching sessions were held, allowing interaction among participants and offering moments of relaxation which, as Dr. Arkaitz Carracedo commented, “it is in these moments that synergies are created and new collaborations can emerge.”
At the end of the second day, we held a round table with four perspectives on oncology research: that of the patient with Marius Soler, president of the INVI Association; that of civil society and the board with Silvia Garriga; that of healthcare professionals with Dr. César Serrano; and that of researchers with Dr. Violeta Serra, both from VHIO.
Finally, we closed the FERO Retreat 2022 with a very productive brainstorming session to jointly define FERO’s future. Thanks for the collaboration of AstraZeneca Spain and Fundación Ibercaja in the FERO Retreat 2022.
By 2023, 54 FERO Grants will have been awarded.
FERO’s future is to continue doing more of the same, more and better. Throughout the Foundation’s history, 46 grants have been awarded. Discover all our grants at https://ferocancer.org/investigacion/proyectos-financiados/.
This year, we have allocated our funds to translational oncology research projects by Dr. Ignacio Melero from Clínica Universidad de Navarra (CUN), Dr. Tian Tian from Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Dr. María Casanovas from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), Dr. José Antonio Seoane from Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Dr. Eduard Porta from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), Dr. Alicia González from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Dr. Juan Miguel Cejalvo from the Health Research Institute (INCLIVA), and Dr. María Caffarel Muñoz from the Biodonostia Health Research Institute.
The FERO Foundation’s mission is to support translational cancer research. This is understood as research that focuses on the patient and seeks to bring questions arising in the oncologist’s consultation to the laboratory, and to bring answers found in the laboratory to the patient as quickly as possible.
