PHOTO: Manuel Castells

The scholarship that the Government of Navarra has granted to the scientist from Navarra, Daniel Plano, belongs to the Anabasi+d program of Postdoctoral Grants for mobility and Talent Attraction researcher. It will cover a 24-month stay at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, in the city of Hershey, Pennsylvania. A total of €87,094, which includes salary and items earmarked for travel and training from researcher. Between March 2012 and February 2014, Daniel Plano will develop a project graduate "Development of novel selenium-NSAID hybrid molecules for lung cancer prevention", which as he himself has explained "will consist of the synthesis, assessment biological in vitro and in vivo and the study of the metabolism of new hybrid selenium compounds in the prevention of lung cancer".

Despite this new challenge, the idea of this researcher of the laboratory of Pharmacotherapy against Leishmaniasis is to continue to maintain a partnership with the high school of Tropical Health and with School of Pharmacy of the University of Navarra, since there are numerous antitumor compounds that are also active against several tropical diseases. In fact, he has several publications in international journals where other selenium derivatives obtained during his doctoral thesis have shown a dual antitumor and leishmanicidal effect. In addition, he assures, "this stay could allow the establishment of a future partnership between Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and the high school of Tropical Health".

This subsidy, says the scientist, "is a unique opportunity for training, especially recommended for those professionals who want to develop our scientific degree program linked to the University of Navarra. In addition, given the current economic situation, having obtained a competitive scholarship from a public entity that allows me to extend these programs of study has been a great satisfaction".