Manel Esteller was awarded with the Jacint Vilardell award for his research into colon cancer.

	The award, given by the Francisco Vilardell Foundation, acknowledges the best published scientific research into colon and rectum cancer between 2005 and 2007.
	Esteller receives this award for his work, published in Nature genetics, which identifies epigenetic changes that contribute to the appearance and development of colon cancer.

The Private Foundation of Gastroenterology Dr. Francisco Vilardell has given the award Jacint Vilardell for the best research into colon and rectum cancer to Manel Esteller, director of the Cancer Biology and Epigenetics program of the Catalan Institute of Oncology.

The award is an appreciation of the best work published on colon and rectum cancer between 2005 and 2007. Manel Esteller receives it for a study published in 2006 in Nature genetics which identified epigenetic changes that contribute to the appearance and development of colon cancer. More specifically, his work identified the role of the histona deacetilases in the appearance of this tumour.

The ceremony will take place on Monday, 28th. of April at 19:00 at the Reial Acadèmia de Medicina de Catalunya.

The Francisco Vilardell Foundation

The Doctor Francisco Vilardell Gastroenterology Foundation was created in 1992 with the aim to promote basic and clinic research into digestive illnesses, specially into their causes. It also provides suport to the patients of this type of illnesses and their families. It cooperates with the Sant Pau Hospital, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, the Hospital in Mataró and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

The entity has two programs:

	Coloncat: its objective is to prevent colon and rectum cancer. It focuses its efforts on the hereditary forms of this tumour and the groups in risk among the population in order to offer diagnostic at initial stages and to keep company to patients and their relatives.
	Gastro-intestinal motility: it studies the causes that produce digestive and intestinal alterations as well as designing and evaluating new treatments.

Francisco Vilardell i Viñas was the director of the Service of Digestive Patology of the Santa Creu i Sant Pau Hospital between 1962 and 1996, when he retired. He has presided over and is a honorary member of several societies, among which we can find the World Gastroenterology Organization.

Jacint Vilardell i Permanyer, Francisco’s father, was born in 1894 and also was a well-known gastroenterologist at the Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona. Among other achievements, he was a foundation member of the Spanish Society of Digestive Patology, and of the International Society of Gastroenterology as well as being the personal doctor of President Francesc Macià. The aim of the award that has his name is to ackowledge and tribute the author of the best work of research related to colon cancer.

Manel Esteller

Born in Sant Boi de Llobregat in 1968, Manel Esteller is an international referent as far as epigenetics is concerned. From 2001 until the beginning of 2008 he has been responsible for the Laboratory of epigenetics of the National Centre of Oncology Research (CNIO*), whose see is in Madrid. Presently, he is the director of the Program of Biology and Epigenetics of Cancer of the Catalan Institute of Oncology.
ICO is the only sanitary centre in Spain which counts on a program on epigenetics.
Esteller is the author of more than 190 cientific articles and is the associated editor of the magazines Cancer Research, The Lancet Oncology, International Journal of Cancer and Epigenetics and Carcinogenesis. Among others, he has received the award to the best researcher, given by the European School of Medical Oncology (1999), the award to basic research by the Johns Hopkins University and Medical Institution (1999), the award to the best young researcher by the European Association for Cancer Research (2000) and the award to the best young researcher by the American Association for Cancer Research-AFLAC (2001).