Santiago de Compostela, 13 April 2021- María José Alonso, Professor of Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), has received today the ‘Honorific Award for Excellence in Scientific Research’ of the AstraZeneca Foundation for her career as a researcher in the field of Biopharmacy. Alonso has received this award today in Madrid together with the winners of the Young Researcher Awards of the AstraZeneca Foundation, an initiative to recognize and foster scientific innovation.
The Honorific Award has been awarded since 2017 to clinical researchers with a proven career in biomedical research who have contributed to the generation of knowledge and advances in their specialty and to the training of new researchers. Professor Alonso thanked this distinction, in addition to the many others received throughout her career: “I am very grateful for this award, especially for recognizing scientific talent with an emphasis on young researchers. The future is in their hands”.
Rick Suarez, president of AstraZeneca Spain and the AstraZeneca Foundation, said: “I would like to sincerely congratulate Professor Alonso for this well-deserved award, in recognition of more than 30 years of dedication to science”. The Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism of Spain, Reyes Maroto, who presented the award, also highlighted “her pioneering work in the field of nanomedicine and drug and vaccine delivery systems”.
Alonso’s research trajectory
María José Alonso is full professor of Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC). From 2006-2010, she was the Vice-rector of Research and Innovation of the USC. She has worked as a visiting scientist at University of Paris XI, (1986-87), at University of Angers, France (1989) and at MIT, US, during 1991-1992 and in 2012.
Her lab (https://www.usc.gal/grupos/mjalonsolab/) has 3-decades experience in the formulation of macromolecules, i.e. peptides, proteins, antigens, monoclonal antibodies and polynucleotides using polymer-based delivery systems, and has pioneered numerous discoveries in the field of Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology and nanomedicine. María J. Alonso has coordinated several research consortia financed by the WHO, the Gates Foundation and the European Commission. She is the most cited author in Spain in the area of Pharmacy and Pharmacology and has been among the TOP TEN in Pharmacology (Times Higher Education international ranking, 2010) (H Index 94). Recently, she become part of the “Power List” of the most influential researchers in the field of Biopharmaceuticals (The Medicine Maker, 2020)
She has also been very active transferring her knowledge to industry. She is the inventor of 22 patent families, most of them licensed to industry and she is part of 3 start-up ventures.
She has served to the Controlled Release Society (CRS) for 15 years and she has been President of the CRS (2017-19). She is also Editor-in-Chief of the “Drug Delivery and Translational Research”, an official journal of the CRS, and she is part of the editorial board of 12 journals.
She has received 36 awards, among them the ”Research and Education Excellence Medal” granted by the Spanish Government, the “Jaime I Award”, the “Castelao” Medal awarded by the Xunta de Galicia and other awards granted by scientific organizations and foundations. She is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and a Fellow of the Controlled Release Society, a member of two academies in Galicia, the Royal Academy of Pharmacy of Spain (RANF), a member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium and also a member of the US National Academy of Medicine (NAM).
About AstraZeneca Foundation
The AstraZeneca Foundation is a non-profit organization that aims to consolidate a more innovative, more sustainable and more participatory National Health System. They make their resources and knowledge available to society, promoting the participation of patients, supporting the development of scientific talent and excellence in healthcare management.
