The School of Medicine of the University of Navarra has awarded the extraordinary prizes of doctorate 2012-2013 to Leyre Aguado Gil, Alejandro Fernández Montero, Oswaldo Lorenzo Betancor and Javier Rodríguez Rodríguez Rodríguez.

Dr. Leyre Aguado focused her thesis on the search for new therapeutic targets for the management of extensive vascular malformations: congenital lesions that tend to grow throughout life, according to her doctoral thesis performed at department of Dermatology at Clínica Universidad de Navarra where she currently practices.

Dr. Fernández Montero, of Medicine at work of the University of Navarra, studied the effect of nut consumption on metabolic syndrome (MS) and total mortality in the SUN (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra) cohort. The results of his research suggest that nut consumption in this group was significantly associated with a lower risk of developing MS and a progressive decrease in the risk of total mortality.

Dr. Oswaldo Lorenzo Betancor made the doctorate in the area of neurosciences. Specifically, on new genetic factors associated with Parkinson's disease where he analyzes the association of certain genetic variants with the risk of developing the disease.

And, finally, Dr. Javier Rodríguez developed his work in the area of Medical Oncology of the Clínica Universidad de Navarra. In his doctoral thesis "Aplicación de la farmacogenómica a la individualización del tratamiento del cáncer colorectal metastásico" he explains that, in recent years, there is a trend towards individualization in the design of the therapeutic strategy for each patient, through the application of predictive biomarkers with which to select less toxic and more effective treatments based on the biological characteristics of each patient.