During the opening ceremony of its academic year, the Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery of the Region of Murcia awarded UCAM Dr. Francisca Ferrer, for her work  ‘El polimorfismo genético rs2431697 del miR146a identifica a pacientes con neoplasias mieloproliferativas crónicas con más alto riesgo de progresión a mielofibrosis’ (The genetic polymorphism rs2431697 of miR146a identifies myeloproliferative neoplasm patients with higher secondary myelofibrosis progression risk) in the category of 'Medicine'. The event also awarded Sergio López Alcaraz for achieving the best academic record of the IV Class of the Degree in Medicine of the Universidad Católica de Murcia. The ceremony was attended by Estrella Núñez, vice-rector of Research at UCAM, and Jerónimo Lajara, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Francisca Ferrer's work focuses on the study of blood diseases triggered by the uncontrolled expansion of bone marrow stem cells.

These neoplasms, which are chronic, have common symptoms: itching, fatigue, abdominal pain due to an enlarged spleen, thrombosis and haemorrhages. In the long term, they can also progress to an advanced stage of the disease, leading to depletion of the bone marrow (the blood factory), or transform into acute leukaemias.  Because these are rare diseases, to carry out this work, the team led by this UCAM and IMIB researcher, together with a large team of collaborators from all over Spain, recruited and studied almost 1,000 patients.