
IpIBA Day: III Meeting of Predoctoral Researchers in Biomedicine
25 April 2024
Jiménez Schuhmacher: "There is talk of the Aragonese scientific miracle, but now we have to take care of it with funds"
25 April 2024El Periódico de Aragón published on April 23, in its digital and paper edition, a supplement that demonstrates the great talent of Aragón. Among the profiles interviewed, Ángel Lanas, scientific director of the Aragón Health Research Institute. A broad conversation to make visible the work, trajectory and people who are part of this Institute
Ángel Lanas (Pamplona, 1956) arrived in Zaragoza in the 70s to study Medicine. Since then, and except for some stays in Navarra and the United States, where he worked with Basil Hirschowitz, considered the father of modern endoscopy, this digestive system expert has been linked to Aragon and its research ecosystem. Since 2011 he has been the scientific director of the Aragón Health Research Institute, an organization in which more than 1.000 researchers participate, with names such as Alberto Jiménez Schuhmacher or Carlos Martí.
-Since 2011 you have led the IIS Aragón, what is your summary of these 15 years?
-We began this journey without knowing very well how far we would go or what its real scope could be. The objective we had was to create a health research institute recognized by Carlos III. We started working in 2011 and in 2015 we achieved accreditation. From then on, the institute began to grow exponentially in two areas, one, economic and the other, scientific, which is important and guides our work. We started with funds of 9.000 euros and at this moment we are managing annual amounts of economic management between 12 and 14 million euros. And on a scientific level we have grown exponentially. We form an entity that has solvency and has reached a level of excellence on par with the best institutes in Spain.
-How is the human potential of an institute with more than 1.000 researchers managed?
-Being in charge of so much talent, of people who know more than you in many fields, is done, first, by experience. I have been in this for many years now and I have mastered all the stages that a clinical researcher has. I know the research that is done in Aragón, because I am also a university student. But that would be worthless without the help of a great human team behind it. And no decision is made unilaterally by the scientific director, the relevant ones are all agreed upon with the team. This makes people feel involved in the institute. And the other big leg that has also been key to success has been the management part.
-The institute includes names like Alberto Jiménez Schuhmacher or Flor Navarro, can we feel happy in Aragón with the talent we treasure?
-Yeah. There is extraordinary talent. And apart from those names, I have some less well-known ones, but they have tremendous power and are very well known internationally at a scientific level. Carlos Martí, the director of the development of the tuberculosis vaccine, Jesús Santamaría, professor at the University of Zaragoza and one of the great figures in nanomedicine in the world. Esther Pueyo, in biomedical signaling at a cardiological level, Julián Pardo, in whom we have placed all our trust for the development of advanced therapies... I also have to highlight people like Fernando Civeira, an international leader in dyslipidemia, José María Marín Trigo, another leader in sleep pathology, and Luis Pardo Júlvez, who has one of the most powerful teams in ophthalmology research internationally. Or Daniel Orós. And I also represent the digestive pathology group and one of the topics that has given us the most prestige has been how to prevent digestive injuries due to drugs. Many of the international clinical practice guidelines are based on our studies. We have important international figures, they are recognized worldwide.
-You were the researcher at the University of Zaragoza in 2019…
-I have been, if not the most, one of the most cited at the University of Zaragoza for many years. This is the fruit of many years of work. To have an international impact you have to work in one line and go deeper. If you work and delve deeper, everyone knows you and everyone quotes you. That's why, over the years, it makes you have more than 20.000 dates. It is something to be proud of, not just personally, but of the work of the entire team, of the help I have received from many people and institutions.
-You have worked in the US, what do we do well compared to abroad and what should we learn?
-My stay was in 1990 and 1991, a long time has passed. Back then, the difference was brutal. What I learned is how to do research well, how it is very important to structure things correctly, how to transfer knowledge. And I started it here. But I think that things have grown very quickly here, and although there are still differences, fundamentally because there are still more resources, these have been reduced. In Spain we are a research power in Europe and internationally and Aragón, to the extent that corresponds to us, we contribute reasonably. The things that are done well in the US are also being done well in Spain.
-What should we do in Aragon to attract and retain talent?
-At the moment, fortunately, Aragón is also improving in these moments. We have an agency, the Aragonese Agency for Research and Development Foundation (Araid), which has been attracting talent to Aragon for many years. We are having very important additions and this agency, in my opinion, must be maintained and strengthened because it is doing tremendous work. And the more research you do, the more they know you and it starts to be an attractive place. What needs to be improved? The infrastructures. We have to continue investing in infrastructure. We have a serious space problem to place the talent that is being generated. And another aspect that I believe we have to continue working on is economic investment. Investing in research has been shown to pay dividends. For every euro invested in research, researchers are able to multiply that euro by three, four or five. And what I would add are the salaries; If you want to compete and have external talent stay here, you have to pay well.
Image: Josema Molina, El Periódico de Aragón
