The Rafael Hervada Awards for Biomedical Research, granted by the I.M.Q. San Rafael Foundation, annually recognize outstanding researchers in Biological and Medical Sciences. In its XXIX edition, focused on "Applications of Artificial Intelligence in cutting-edge medicine", the awarded researcher was Dr. Manel Esteller, Director of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, ICREA Research Professor and Professor of Genetics at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona.

Dr. Manel Esteller receives this recognition for his research in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in cancer genomics, infectious diseases such as COVID-19 and the study of virtual twins; as well as for the development of new technologies for the study of Epigenetics and its alterations in diseases. According to Dr. Esteller, the Rafael Hervada awards demonstrate “the support of the San Rafael Foundation in the promotion of science and scientific vocations. We appreciate the recognition of our work on new bioinformatics tools to study the epigenome of cancer and other diseases. It is a great source of motivation to continue carrying out research in artificial intelligence in biomedicine".

The award ceremony was held on Friday, 24 November in the auditorium of the San Rafael Hospital in A Coruña (Galicia, Spain) and was attended by the president of the San Rafael Foundation, Ms. Benigna Peña Sánchez; the president of the Jury, Prof. Ángel Carracedo; the rector of the University of A Coruña, Mr. Julio Abalde Alonso; the Galician Regional Minister of Health, Mr. Julio García Comesaña and the mayor of A Coruña, Ms. Inés Rey García.

Dr. Manel Esteller graduated in Medicine at the University of Barcelona and carried out his PhD with a specialization in molecular genetics of endometrial carcinoma at the same university. He was a postdoctoral and associate researcher at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore, USA), where he studied DNA methylation and its relationship with cancer. He led the Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) in Madrid from 2001 to 2008, when he returned to Catalonia to lead the Epigenetics and Cancer Biology Programme (PEBC) at the Bellvitge biomedical campus. Since 2019, he has been the director of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC). Dr. Esteller's research has allowed to understand the contribution of epigenetic alterations in several human pathologies, particularly in cancer, and to obtain their biomarkers, as well as to develop new treatments.