Dr Maria Soler, from the ICN2 Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications group, received the "Game Changer" award at the virtual workshop "Chasing COVID", held on October 22. She presented her group's project ConVat in the "Medtech & Population and genetic studies" session.
To promote Catalan research on SARS-CoV-2, Biocat — a Catalan institution aiming to maximize the economic and social impact of research and innovation in life sciences and healthcare — organized "Chasing COVID", a virtual workshop that was held on October 22. During the event, top scientists of Catalonia shared their outstanding research on new therapies, vaccines, rapid detection, and genetic studies of Covid-19. Each participant had a 5-minute talk to present their project, explaining its methodology and highlighting its excellence and impact. Two ICN2 post-doctoral researchers, Dr Giulio Rosati, from the NanoBioelectronics and Biosensors group, and Dr Maria Soler, from the NanoBiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications group, discussed their projects in the last session of the event, "Medtech & Population and genetic studies". At the end of the session, two awards were given to the best project in two categories: “Beautiful Science”, and “Game Changer”.
Dr Maria Soler, senior researcher in the ICN2 research group led by Prof. Laura Lechuga, presented the ConVat project dedicated to the development of photonic nanotechnology for rapid and ultrasensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2 in human patients and reservoir animals (bats). Her speech was entitled "CONVAT: Combating COVID-19: Advanced Nanobiosensors for Global POC Diagnostics and Surveillance." Voted by the public, Dr Maria Soler won the “Game Changer” award, dedicated to "key mechanisms and technologies that could represent a point of inflection in the field" as they will soon be used at the forefront in the fight against Covid-19.
Congratulations to Dr Maria Soler and all the ICN2 NanoBiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications group for doing a terrific job!