Researcher of the Year 2014 - Luis Escribano Mora
Dr. Luis Escribano Mora, born in Lugo in the northwest part of Spain (Galicia), dedicated his research and career to mast cells and mastocytosis, and especially to his patients suffering from various types of the disease. He completed his PhD. at the Faculty of Medicine of the University Complutense in Madrid in 1989. As a Hematologist, both at the Ramon y Cajal Hospital in Madrid (1997 to 2007) and at the Mast Cell Institute of the Virgen del Valle Hospital in Toledo (2007 to 2013), Prof. Luis Escribano has particularly dedicated his research into mastocytosis.
During this period, Dr. Luis Escribano has created and established the largest worldwide reference unit for patients with mastocytosis and he was the promoter and founder of the Spanish Network on Mastocytosis (REMA), as part of the ECMN (European Competence Network on Mastocytosis). In addition, he established a Center of Excellence of the ECNM in Toledo.
With his research interest focused on improving patient care, quality of life and prognosis, he has made numerous key contributions in the past 15 years in the field particularly as regards flow cytometric characterization of normal vs mastocytosis mast cells, and the evaluation of the degree of involvement of hematopoiesis by the KIT mutation. In addition, he established treatment algorithms and therapy guidelines for various groups of patients with mastocytosis. During his career, Dr. Escribano published a long series of more than 100 original manuscripts, as well as numerous review articles and book chapters on mastocytosis.
In 2014, Dr. Luis Escribano was nominated for the ECNM Medal and was elected as the Researcher of the Year of the ECNM in 2014. He received the ECNM Medal for his seminal contributions in the field of mastocytosis research: specifically, he was awarded for the delineation of the abnormal mast cell phenotypes in patients with systemic mastocytosis and for the translation of this concept from the flow laboratory into clinical practice. The top-priority paper selected (Escribano et al, Blood 1998) has been cited over 150 times until 2014 and is regarded standard literature and ultimate basis of mast cell phenotyping in health and disease. Currently, Dr. Escribano coordinates the REMA and is affiliated with the University of Salamanca.