Professor María Blanco Prieto, professor at the School of Pharmacy and Nutrition of the University of Navarra, has received the award from the journal "Drug Delivery and Translational Research" to the article of research most outstanding published during 2021. The award was awarded at the annual congress of the Controlled Release Society held in Montreal (Canada) during the month of July.

The award-winning article , graduate "SPION and doxorubicin-loaded polymeric nanocarriers for glioblastoma theranostics", was cover of the journal in March 2021, and is part of the doctoral thesis of Dr. Edurne Luque, first author of the same and award extraordinary of doctorate. Directed by Prof. Blanco, the work has been carried out in partnership with Dr. Laurent Lemaire from the INSERM Unit "Micro and translational nanomedicines" of the University of Anger (France).

"Glioblastoma multiforme is the most frequent tumor of the different types of gliomas that exist, as well as the most malignant," explains Professor Blanco. "The strategy we propose at article is based on what is known as teragnosis, which consists of combining diagnosis and treatment. Iron oxide nanoparticles of a very small size (around 10 nanometers) can be used as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging and be guided by a magnetic field to the tumor where the antitumor agent will be released."

As result, the nanomedicines developed, once administered in an animal model of glioblastoma multiforme, were able to reduce the tumor generated in the brain of these animals. "The final goal of this research is to achieve personalized medicine, i.e. the tailoring of tumor detection and treatment to the characteristics of each patient," he concludes.