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Home > Prizes > Prize Recipients > Antonio Giraldez

Antonio Giraldez

2014 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Location

New Haven, CT

Title

Associate professor in genetics; Chair of the Genetics Department, Yale University

Area(s) of Research

Genetics; biochemistry; quantitative biology

Education

European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg (internship, PhD);
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid;
University of Cádiz

Country of Birth

Spain

Links to learn more about Antonio Giraldez's work
  • yale.edu

Tags
biochemistry biology biomedical science embryonic development genetics quantitative biology rna Spain
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Antonio Giraldez at a microscope bench in his lab.

Raised in winemaking country in Jerez, Spain, Antonio Giraldez was too young to drink the region’s specialty sherry but just the right age to play with the petri dishes and beakers that his father, an administrator in a winery, brought home from the scientists at work. They became the founding components of the 10-year-old’s bedroom chem lab.

Wine and chemistry initially came together for the buddying scientist at the University of Cádiz, where he investigated the effect of the sun on the polyphenol compounds in sherry. Studying at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Giraldez came in contact with “really big science” and was introduced to fly genetics and “the wonderful world of developmental biology.”

It was while he was working on his doctoral project, wing formation in fruit flies, that a discovery made by other investigators in the lab — of the first microRNA (a small RNA important in the regulation of gene expression) identified in the fly — captured his attention and held it ever since. As a postdoc he began to formulate his own research in the emerging field of tiny RNA (microRNAs) molecules that regulate protein expression.

Now an associate professor in genetics at Yale, working from his own laboratory there, Giraldez and his team are focused on answering such questions as: How does an embryo develop from a fertilized egg? How is the machinery set in motion to activate the right genes at the right time after fertilization? Already, exciting findings they have made “represent the beginning of life from a transcriptional standpoint, and uncover the long-sought factors that initiate zygotic development in vertebrates.”

Giraldez is also director of graduate studies, spearheading junior faculty support groups and mentoring and leadership courses.

Awards and Accomplishments

  • Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences (2008)
  • John Kendrew Young Investigator Award (2007)
  • Lois E. and Franklin H. Top, Jr., Yale Scholar Award (2007)
Tags
biochemistry biology biomedical science embryonic development genetics quantitative biology rna Spain

Jury Members

2014 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Heran Darwin

Associate Professor of Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine

Laurie Dempsey

Senior Editor, Nature Immunology

Peter Palese

Professor and Chair, Microbiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Jan Vilcek

Professor of Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine

Leslie Vosshall

Chemers Family Associate Professor, The Rockefeller University

Nicholas Wade

Science Department, The New York Times

Jedd Wolchok

Director of Immunotherapy, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
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Related Prize Recipients

Martin Jonikas

Martin Jonikas receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for molecular studies on Chlamydomonas, a model photosynthetic organism, with long-term implications for improving food-crop yield and combating climate change.
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Joan Massagué

Joan Massagué receives the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science for groundbreaking work in identifying and uncovering the mode of action of cellular receptors for the signaling molecule TGF-beta, which is implicated in processes such as embryonic development, tumor onset, and cancer metastasis.
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Hani Goodarzi receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for using modeling and computational methods to uncover novel molecular players and pathways and therapeutic targets in cancer metastasis and for developing sophisticated molecular tools for the early detection and monitoring of cancer.
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