Ricardo Moreno Ballesteros has emerged as the recipient of the University of Dundee, Innovator of the Year Business Award. Ricardo received his prize at the School of Life Sciences (SLS) Review of Year, attended by University of Dundee life science staff.

The Innovator of the Year award is a testament to Ricardo's relentless pursuit of innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship. Working as an MRC PhD student in the lab of Prof. Satpal Virdee at the Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (PPU), his ground-breaking work aims to accelerate the development of revolutionary “proximity-inducing” medicines. These medicines bind two protein targets, thereby bringing them close to one another. This can result in the cellular rewiring of diseased cells allowing the treatment of diseases such as cancer. Prof. Virdee said “Ricardo’s drive to commercialise his research is remarkable. He is a true entrepreneur and efforts like this are key to maximising the benefit of academic research on society.”

In addition to the medical potential, the ability to create new signalling nodes with small molecules also has great promise for basic research and synthetic biology applications.”

Prof. Dario Alessi, Director of the PPU said “Huge congratulations to Ricardo for this prestigious award and for all that he has achieved whilst working towards a PhD in the Virdee lab. Ricardo is a role model for aspiring entrepreneurs. His passion for commercialising his research by developing a new platform to aid the drug discovery process is inspiring and has strong potential to make significant impact”.

We wish Ricardo and his company Genprotex all the success for the future.