Prof. Laura M. Lechuga Receives the 2025 Fundación Lilly Biomedical Research Award

by Chema Arcos

The Foundation highlights her pioneering work on ultra-sensitive nanophotonic biosensors, which enable the early and accurate diagnosis of various diseases, including drug-resistant infections and different types of cancer.

On 23 June, the Fundación Lilly Biomedical Research Awards ceremony took place in Madrid, Spain. These awards aim to recognise researchers who have made significant contributions to advancing biomedicine and health sciences in Spain. They also seek to promote high-quality science that advances knowledge and benefits society.

Laura M. Lechuga, leader of the ICN2 Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group and Full Professor at CSIC and CIBER-BBN, received the award in the preclinical biomedical research category. She has been recognised for her excellent research in nanotechnology and biomedicine. Specifically, the Lilly Foundation wanted to highlight her pioneering work in developing highly sensitive biosensors that can detect biomarkers related to certain types of cancer and resistant bacterial infections.

These biosensors are based on nanophotonics, a technology that uses photons of light to travel through microcircuits and interact with the sample on a nanometre scale. This enables highly accurate results to be obtained using very small sample sizes.

As Professor Laura M. Lechuga points out: 'Unlike slow, expensive laboratory techniques that require specialised personnel, these devices can provide a diagnosis in just a few minutes using a minimal sample of blood, saliva, sweat or urine.' The next step in developing these devices will be to improve their selectivity further, with the aim of making them suitable for clinical use.

In the clinical research category, the award went to Dr Manuel Fernández-Real, researcher in endocrinology and nutrition at the Girona Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBGI) and the CIBEROBN network.

From ICN2, we would like to congratulate our researcher and Group Leader Laura M. Lechuga on this well-deserved recognition for her excellent career.