Three laureates for the fourth edition of the UNESCO–Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences are:

Agricultural Research Organization (Volcani Center, Israel)
The institute has successfully developed cutting-edge innovations and methodologies in agricultural research with practical applications as well as capacity building programmes to promote food security in arid, semi-arid and desert environments, advancing human well-being.

Rui Luis GONÇALVES dos REIS (University of Minho, Portugal)
For his outstanding innovative contributions to the development and engineering of natural-based biomaterials and their biomedical applications including tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, stem cells and drug delivery, which have a significant potential to improve human health.

Ivan Antonio IZQUIERDO (Biomedical Research Institute, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)
For his seminal discoveries in elucidating the mechanisms of memory processes including consolidation and retrieval and their clinical applications in aging, psychological disturbances and neurodegenerative diseases leading to the promotion of the quality of human life.

The UNESCO–Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences rewards the outstanding scientific research projects of individuals, institutions or other entities working in the life sciences that have led to an improvement in the quality of human life.

Ivan Antonio Izquierdo (Brazil), the Agricultural Research Organization (Volcani Center, Israel) and Rui Luis Gonçalves dos Reis (Portugal) received the UNESCO–Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences today. Their research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms of memory processes and their clinical applications in aging and neurodegenerative diseases, innovations in agricultural research and the promotion of food security, as well as the development of biomaterials and their medical applications, which have a significant potential to improve human health.

The Prize was given by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Président of Equatorial Guinea, and Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of l’UNESCO, during a ceremony in Sipopo, Malabo (Equatorial Guinea).

This is the fourth edition of the prize, which rewards the outstanding scientific research projects of individuals, institutions or other entities working in the life sciences that have led to an improvement in the quality of human life.

Each of the three laureates will receive a statue made by the artist Leandro Mbomio Nsue, a diploma and $100,000.