Dr. Gemma Vilahur, from the Molecular Pathology and Therapeutics of Atherothrombotic and Ischemic Diseases group at the Research Institute of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau – IIB Sant Pau, has been appointed President of the European Society for Clinical Investigation (ESCI) during the annual congress of this scientific society held in Prague, Czech Republic.
ESCI, which will be presided over by Dr. Vilahur for the next 4 years, is one of the oldest scientific societies in Europe, founded in 1967, and its main objectives include promoting the improvement of human health through cross-cutting research in all fields of medicine.
Dr. Vilahur has a well-established expertise in cardiovascular disease, ranging from atherosclerosis and its risk factors to thrombosis and myocardial infarction, as well as in the identification of new targets and therapeutic strategies to prevent and treat heart attacks. She is the author of 288 articles in the cardiovascular area (180 PubMed articles), including original manuscripts, reviews, and position/consensus articles, and has contributed to 34 book chapters. She has been involved in more than 50 research projects, both at the national and European levels, and has received multiple scientific awards and grants. She is the former president (2020-2022) of the Thrombosis Working Group of the European Society of Cardiology.
Medical research is advancing significantly, and the information generated in different areas is sometimes vast. In congresses and scientific journals, it is common to share this knowledge among experts and professionals interested in a specific field. However, it is increasingly evident that the body is highly interconnected, and there is bidirectional communication between different organs (brain-heart, microbiota-brain, etc.). Findings made in a particular disease or organ can be very useful for research in seemingly distant fields (inflammatory response, angiogenesis, metabolism, mitochondrial activity, aging, etc.). Therefore, it is essential for research to have a broad and integrated view of human pathology. This is precisely the motivation behind the creation of ESCI, as explained by Dr. Vilahur.
“It brings together scientists from many branches of knowledge who, through different symposia and working groups, gather and present and discuss the different findings in the scientific and clinical realms with a holistic and multidisciplinary approach.”
The new president emphasizes that the cross-cutting nature of this scientific society “is what makes it truly special and allows us to seek complementarities and promote multidisciplinary collaborations, unlike other societies that are more focused on a particular specialty,” according to Dr. Vilahur’s words.
Among her objectives for the next 4 years with ESCI, this expert from IIB Sant Pau highlights, among others, its growth to promote interdisciplinary research further. She also aims to increase the number of scholarships and grants offered by the society for both research and dissemination purposes.
