The Carlos III Health Institute awards the “Rio Hortega” contracts every year. These contracts are for health professionals who have completed the period of specialized health training and allow the consolidation of clinical research staff in health institutions. Dr. Rodrigo Álvarez Velasco has received one of these contracts with a duration of two years to develop his activity as a clinician and researcher in the Neuromuscular Diseases Unit of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau. This period will allow him to specialize in the management of patients with neuromuscular diseases as well as participate in different clinical and basic research projects in the Neuromuscular laboratory.
The Carlos III Health Institute has also awarded Dr. Xavier Suárez-Calvet a Sara Borrell post-doctoral research contract. This 3-year contract will allow him to continue the research of the group that focuses on the knowledge of the mechanisms involved in muscle degeneration and the development of new therapeutic strategies in muscular dystrophies.
The Alfonso Martín Escudero Foundation has awarded Dr. Elena Cortés a research scholarship in universities or centers abroad. This scholarship will allow her to extend her stay in Dr Santamaria’s laboratory at the University of Calgary (Canada) during 2019. Dr. Cortés began her stay in Calgary in June 2018 and is studying an innovative therapy for the treatment of Myasthenia Gravis in the pre-clinical mouse model of the disease.