• H.M. King of Spain Felipe IV has personally congratulated the American immunologist, whose therapy is currently applied in malignant hematological neoplasms, in a private audience at Palacio de la Zarzuela.
• Upon receiving the award, Dr. June dedicated the recognition to “the collective spirit and relentless dedication of countless individuals—researchers, clinicians, patients, and families—who dare to dream of a world where cancer is no longer a formidable foe but a conquerable adversary”.
• The award ceremony was attended by the Secretary of State for Health, Mr. Javier Padilla Bernáldez and brought together important personalities from public society, science, research and health management in Spain.
Carl H. June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at this important institution, has been been awarded today as the winner of the IV Edition of “ABARCA PRIZE”, the Doctor Juan Abarca International Award for Medical Sciences for his research and pioneering development of a revolutionary strategy to treat blood cancers, based on cell engineering.
It is known as CAR-T (Chimeric Antigen Receptor) cell therapy and is an example of what’s popularly known as immunotherapy treatment because it uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. This finding opens the door to addressing not only blood cancers but also other solid neoplasms, autoimmune pathologies (such as lupus) and many other non-oncological diseases. The development of CAR-T cell therapy is one of the most relevant medical-scientific advances of our time, comparable to the discovery of antibiotics, chemotherapy, or genetic research.
During his stay in Madrid, and given the relevance of his research, Dr. June was received by H.M. The King of Spain at Palacio de la Zarzuela, in a private audience in which Felipe VI congratulated the renowned immunologist for his research and for the ‘ABARCA PRIZE’ award.
In the award ceremony, Dr. June received the award from the Secretary of State for Health, Mr. Javier Padilla Bernáldez, and gave an exciting speech in which he stressed that “receiving this award is not just a personal milestone. It reflects the collective spirit and tireless dedication of countless people – researchers, doctors, patients and families – who dare to dream of a world where cancer is no longer a formidable foe but a conquerable adversary.”
The ‘ABARCA PRIZE’ award ceremony in its fourth edition was attended by more than 180 guests, including numerous public personalities such as José María Álvarez Pallete, chairman of Telefónica; Elena Henríquez de Luna, president of GSK Spain; Carlos Murillo, president of Pfizer Spain, Patrick Wallach, general manager of Roche Farma Spain; Rick Suarez, president of AstraZeneca Spain; Iñaki Peralta, CEO of Sanitas; Ana Pastor, president of AMA; Alessandro Salem, CEO of Mediaset Spain; José Manuel Inchausti, vice president of Mapfre; and Pedro J. Ramírez, president of El Español.
Carl H. June, M.D., creator of CAR-T cell therapy for blood cancer
Carl H. June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at this important institution, began his research on the study of the CD28 molecule in the 80s as the main T-cell control switch. He led the development of the first CAR-T cell therapy, approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in 2017, and known by the generic name of tisagenlecleucel (trade name Kymriah, of Novartis).
Six different CAR-T cell therapies are now approved in the United States to treat various forms of blood cancers, including certain lymphomas, leukemias and myelomas. In the pediatric setting, Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) is the most common type of leukemia and 60% of those affected are under 20 years of age. In the case of adults, the leukemia in 30% of cases is Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). It generally affects people over 65 years of age, a relevant aspect given the trend of increasing life expectancy and ageing of the population.
Nowadays, 85% of paediatric patients receiving CAR-T immunotherapy treatment respond to treatment, a figure that reaches 50 to 70% in the case of adults.
Dr. June himself has stated that the main motivation to discover new ways to fight cancer and was the diagnosis that his first wife, Cynthia, suffered in 1995 from ovarian cancer, from which she died in 2001. In the decades since June began his research with CAR-T cells, the field has grown exponentially with close to a thousand trials underway around the world.
June’s lab continues to drive innovation in personalized cell- and gene-based therapies, developing new strategies to make CAR-T cell therapy more effective for all blood cancers, for solid tumors, and even for diseases other than cancer. He has also made fundamental contributions to HIV research, developing the first method to multiply T cells outside the body and demonstrating that the cells could be safely reinfused into the patient, improving their immune function.
The 2024 ‘ABARCA PRIZE’ laureate is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the Baylor College of Medicine who began his career at Bethesda Naval Hospital before establishing his laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania in 1999. June has published more than 500 manuscripts and has received numerous prestigious awards for his scientific achievements.
The jury meeting minutes were read by Prof. Silvia G. Priori, cardiologist and researcher and president of the international jury of the award.
In addition to Prof. Priori, the jury of ‘ABARCA PRIZE’ included this year among its members the winners of the two previous editions of the award, Professors Douglas Melton and Philippe J. Sansonetti; the Spanish palaeontologist Juan Luis Arsuaga, director of the UCM-Carlos III Health Institute Joint Centre for Human Evolution and Behaviour and co-director of the Sierra de Atapuerca sites; Professor Pura Muñoz Cánoves, a graduate in Pharmacy and PhD in Biological Sciences and Altos Labs researcher at the San Diego Institute of Science (USA); Dr. Sandra Myrna Díaz, CONICET Senior Researcher at the Multidisciplinary Institute of Plant Biology (IMBIV), recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Climate Change and the Princess of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technological Research (2019); and Professor Federico de Montalvo, Doctor of Law and president of the Spanish Bioethics Committee from 2019 to 2022.
About ‘ABARCA PRIZE’
The Doctor Juan Abarca International Award for Medical Sciences, ‘ABARCA PRIZE’, was born in 2021 with the purpose of highlighting the impact of medical-scientific advances and innovations to international society. This award is granted to a personality in the field of research and science from anywhere in the world, whose work has made a significant contribution to the improvement of the health of people and populations.
‘ABARCA PRIZE’ is inspired by the foundations of the permanent commitment to the progress and health of people, intrinsic values of the figure of Dr. Juan Abarca throughout his professional career.
