David Gómez, researcher from CABD, second winner of the Ateneo de Sevilla Award for Young Researchers
published on 17/01/2025
Gómez Fernández is the author of the award-winning research, focused on new therapeutic pathways for mitochondrial diseases, developed within the framework of José Antonio Sánchez Alcázar's group at the Andalusian Center for Developmental Biology.
David Gómez Fernández, a researcher at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide, has been awarded the second Ateneo de Sevilla prize for Young Researchers. This recognition highlights a research project focused on new therapeutic pathways for mitochondrial diseases in which Gómez Fernández is the first author, and which has been developed within the group led by Dr. José Antonio Sánchez Alcázar, at the Andalusian Center for Developmental Biology (CABD), a joint center of the University Pablo de Olavide, the Andalusian Regional Government and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
El investigador, David Gómez / Fernando Salazar.
Under the title 'A Multi-Target Pharmacological Correction of a Lipoyltransferase LIPT1 Gene Mutation in Patient-Derived Cellular Models', published in Antioxidants (no. 13. 1023. August 2024), the research focuses on the proposal of a treatment with therapeutic potential for a patient with a rare disease caused by a mutation in the LIPT1 gene (responsible for the lipoylation of mitochondrial proteins, whose deficiency leads to diseases such as Leigh Syndrome), using as a model fibroblasts (skin cells) derived directly from the patient, and induced neurons obtained by direct reprogramming.
This study is part of the MITOCURE platform, a personalized precision medicine project developed by Dr. Sánchez Alcázar's team, which evaluates the effectiveness of treatments in cells derived from patients with different mitochondrial mutations. Gómez Fernández's article could thus mark a turning point in the way mitochondrial diseases are approached, offering new therapeutic avenues to patients who until now only had palliative treatments.
The jury valued the relevance and quality of the work presented, focused on the study of rare diseases, a field that represents one of the greatest challenges in the field of mitochondrial diseases.
David Gómez durante la presentación de su estudio premiado.
David Gómez Fernández wanted to highlight the importance of the collective work in this achievement: “For me the award, although it has been a recognition of the individual article and for which I am grateful, is a recognition of all the work and effort of Dr. José Antonio Sánchez Alcázar's group, of each of my colleagues. Gómez Fernández also thanked “the opportunity to be able to contribute to give visibility to research into rare diseases, as other national and international research groups are doing, and to be able to propose a treatment, which in most cases is non-existent, that can help other patients and their families in similar conditions”.
On the Ateneo de Sevilla Award for Young Researchers
This award is an example of the Ateneo de Sevilla's commitment to young local talent, and it is an essential condition for the presentation of studies that the signatories must be natives of Seville, or be research carried out in local institutions. It also aims to encourage and promote research in the field of medicine, specifically in Rare Diseases, an unprofitable sector that lacks economic support in most cases, but equally important and urgent, with nearly 3 million people affected by this type of ailment in Spain alone (FEDER).
The first prize went to Bella Mora Romero and Nicolás Capelo Carrasco with the work 'Microglia mitochondrial complex I deficiency during development induces glial dysfunction and early lethality' (Microglia mitochondrial complex I deficiency during development induces glial dysfunction and early lethality), published in the journal Nature Metabolism ( 6 (8), 1479-1491, July 2024) and developed at the Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla (IBiS) and the Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío.
From left to the right: , David Gómez Fernández, Bella Mora Romero, José Luis Sanz (from Secilla's city hall), Emilio Boja Malavé y Nicolás Capelo Carrasco / Fernando Salazar.