The aim of the grant, awarded from a pool of more than 1,100 applicants, is to support the talent of students with outstanding academic records and facilitate studies at leading universities and research centres around the world.

The grant recipients were honoured at a ceremony held on 9 July at CaixaForum Madrid, presided over by His Majesty King Felipe VI of Spain and attended by Isidre Fainé, president of the “la Caixa” Foundation, along with other institutional representatives.

According to Ignasi Fàbregas, this grant is much more than financial aid: “Receiving this grant has allowed me to fulfil one of my childhood dreams: studying at the University of Oxford. This is a unique opportunity to grow both academically and personally, with the goal of contributing to advances in research and helping to develop new treatments that will enable more people to overcome cancer,” he says.

A career linked to cancer research

Ignasi Fàbregas, 23, graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biomedical Sciences from UIC Barcelona in 2025, receiving the award for best academic record in his graduating class. During his studies, he completed his Bachelor’s Degree Final Project at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School, where he investigated immune evasion mechanisms in colorectal cancer and the interaction between the immune system and cancer cells.

He subsequently began his research career at the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) at Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, taking part in a range of oncology research projects. He later joined the Immunology Research and Development Department at Grifols in San Francisco, where he further specialised in the field of cancer immunology. 

He is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Applied Cancer Science at the University of Oxford with support from the “la Caixa” Foundation grant and will soon begin a PhD as part of the research group led by Professor Ignacio Melero, one of the world’s foremost experts in cancer immunotherapy.