Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Cells 2022 Young Investigator Award is Dr. Pedro Rodrigues.

Dr. Pedro Rodrigues is currently an investigator at the Biodonostia Health Research Institute. His research interests are chiefly concerned with translational medicine, more specifically focusing on liver diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and liver cancer. After achieving his PhD in pharmacy (Cum Laude) from the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon, Portugal, he proposed a new therapeutic approach for NAFLD patients. Following this, he continued to finish his research on miR-21, OCA, and another drug (INT-767) that is currently under pre-clinical study, focusing on the progression of NAFLD toward liver cancer. Since March 2018, Dr. Rodrigues has moved to the Liver Diseases Group at the Biodonostia Health Research Institute (Donostia University Hospital, San Sebastian, Spain) to conduct an international postdoctoral fellowship and then start his own independent research line. His research group is chiefly dedicated to the study of molecular mechanisms that are involved in liver pathobiology (i.e., non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, fibrosis, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and cholangiocarcinoma) and is looking for novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies and tools. During this period, his research has mainly been concerned with hepatobiliary pathophysiology, focusing specifically on the study of the molecular mechanisms that govern biliary carcinogenesis, in the quest for new, non-invasive biomarkers for both liver and metabolic diseases (mainly NAFLD). Furthermore, Dr. Rodrigues is currently the Principal Investigator or Associate Investigator of numerous National and International Research Projects (EU Horizon 2020, La Caixa, ISCIII, PSC Partners (USA), PSC Supports (UK), AMMF-CCA (UK), Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC), Basque Government, IKERBASQUE Foundation, CIBERehd, Incyte Pharma, etc.).

As the awardee, Dr. Pedro Rodrigues will receive an honorarium of CHF 2000, an offer to publish a paper in Cells free of charge before the end of 2023 after peer review, and an electronic certificate.

We would like to thank all the nominators from various fields of study for their participation and all the Award Committee members for their evaluation of the many excellent nominations.

Prof. Dr. Alexander E. Kalyuzhny
Editor-in-Chief, Cells