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The International Prize – Arrigo Recordati

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2026 award

The winning project

Preselection until

April 14, 2026

research area

Paediatric Oncology (Sarcomas)

The 12th edition of the Prize focused on the advancement of research in the field of paediatric oncology, specifically sarcomas.

Paediatric sarcomas remain among the leading causes of cancer-related death in children, yet treatments for most sarcomas have seen little to no significant improvement over the past 40 years.

Advancing understanding of the pathophysiology of paediatric sarcomas is essential to develop targeted therapies that are both effective and less toxic. Translational efforts—bridging laboratory discoveries with clinical applications—are particularly vital to accelerate early intervention strategies and improve outcomes.

The 2026 edition of the Arrigo Recordati Research Prize is dedicated to this challenge, aiming to spotlight and support pioneering research in paediatric oncology. By fostering collaboration across disciplines and investing in promising early-career investigators, the Prize seeks to catalyze breakthroughs that will redefine care for children affected by sarcomas.

 

meet the 2026 winner

Laura Broutier, M.D., PhD

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Winner
Laura Broutier, M.D., PhD.

Research Area
Paediatric Oncology, Sarcomas

Affiliation
Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Lyon (CRCL), Centre Léon Bérard (CLB)

Winning Project
DISARMS – Disrupting Invasion, Stemness And Resistance in RhabdoMyoSarcoma by targeting dormant persister cells.

Description
Fusion-negative rhabdomyosarcoma is the most common soft-tissue sarcoma of children and young adults, yet survival has not improved in four decades and treatment toxicity precludes further dose escalation. The mechanisms allowing tumor cells to survive chemotherapy and later drive relapse and metastasis remain poorly understood. Combining patient-derived organoids, single-cell technologies, and genetic engineering, we have uncovered a dormant, drug-tolerant persister cell state whose signature predicts patient survival in independent cohorts. Building on this foundation, the DISARMS project aims to decode how this cell state couples chemoresistance to an invasive, pro-metastatic program, and to exploit its vulnerabilities in rational, low-toxicity drug combinations to eliminate the cells conventional chemotherapy spares. As dormant persister programmes are increasingly recognised across cancer types, the framework developed here may extend beyond rhabdomyosarcoma.

“I am deeply honoured that the DISARMS project has been selected for the 2026 Arrigo Recordati Prize. Our research seeks to understand how a small population of tumour cells can survive chemotherapy and later drive relapse and metastasis. With the support of this Prize, we hope to identify vulnerabilities that can be translated into rational, low-toxicity therapeutic approaches, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes for children and young adults with rhabdomyosarcoma. I am also particularly grateful for the recognition of the team behind this work.”

Dr. Laura Broutier

PRIzE MONEY

Celebrating excellence in research

The winning project was announced during an Award Ceremony on Wednesday September 16, 2026 at the 58th Annual SIOP Congress (International Society of Paediatric Oncology) in San Antonio (US).

The award amount of the Arrigo Recordati Research Prize was increased in its 12th edition, reaffirming our commitment to recognising excellence in medical research.

The winning project received a € 250,000 research grant to fund research for 2 years.

Meet the Jury

2026 Review Committee

Applications will be reviewed by an independent panel of internationally recognised experts who have provided leadership throughout their long careers in the field of rare diseases.

For the 2026 Award, the Review Committee is composed of:

Prof. Robert J. Desnick

Chairman – M.D., Ph.D.

Dean for Genetics and Genomic Medicine Emeritus; Professor of Genetics and Pediatrics;

Inaugural Chair of Genetics and Genomic Sciences Emeritus; Department of Genetics & Genomic Sciences and Pediatrics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York.

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Dr. Yu, Alice Lin-Tsing

M.D., Ph.D.

Distinguished Chair Professor, Institute of Stem Cell & Translational Cancer Research, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital & Chang Gung University, Taiwan Professor Emeritus, Department of Pediatrics and Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, California.

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Professor Sandra Strauss

Ph.D., FRCP.

Professor of Medical and Teenage Young Adult (TYA) Oncology, UCL Cancer Institute Honorary Consultant Medical Oncologist  and Sarcoma Lead, University College London Hospital NHS Trust Chair EuroEwing Consortium Executive Committee NHS National Disease Registration Service Sarcoma Lead.

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Where research receives recognition

This young investigator award is granted every two years to a scientist in recognition for outstanding work in a specified focus area.

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Dr Laura Broutier, PhD

Inserm Researcher and Group Leader, Cancer Research Center of Lyon, Lyon, France.

Laura Broutier is an Inserm researcher and group leader at the Cancer Research Center of Lyon. She works within the “Childhood Cancers & Cell States” team, led by Marie Castets and Jean-Yves Blay.

Following a PhD focused on cancer cell death resistance, Dr Broutier completed postdoctoral research in Cambridge, where she pioneered the development of the first liver tumour-derived organoids. She subsequently redirected this expertise towards paediatric cancers, rare diseases for which very few dedicated research models are available.

Her group develops three-dimensional tumoroids directly from children’s biopsies, including sarcoma samples. Its research uses innovative approaches to investigate and overcome the molecular and cellular processes that contribute to treatment resistance, relapse and cancer dissemination.

Dr Broutier leads the DISARMS project, which investigates fusion-negative rhabdomyosarcoma, the most common soft-tissue sarcoma affecting children and young adults. The project aims to understand how dormant, drug-tolerant tumour cells survive chemotherapy and subsequently contribute to relapse and metastasis.

Working with a multidisciplinary team, she combines patient-derived organoid modelling, single-cell multiomics, computational biology, cancer cell metabolism and translational paediatric oncology. The research seeks to identify vulnerabilities in persistent tumour cells and translate these findings into rational, low-toxicity therapeutic approaches.

In 2026, the DISARMS project received the €250,000 International Prize for Scientific Research Arrigo Recordati. 

Prof. Robert J. Desnick

Dean for Genetics and Genomic Medicine, Professor and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, NY, USA.

Robert J. Desnick is Dean for Genetic and Genomic Medicine and Professor and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

In 1977, he joined the Mount Sinai faculty as the Arthur J. and Nellie Z. Cohen Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics, and Chief of Medical and Molecular Genetics. From 1993-2011, he was the first Chairman of the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at Mount Sinai. In 2011 he became the Dean for Genetics and Genomic Medicine.

Dr. Desnick’s research interests include lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs) and the inborn errors of heme biosynthesis, the porphyrias, and in particular, their treatment.

His research efforts led to the Federal Drugs Administration (FDA) – and European Medicine Agency (EMA) – approval of enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) for Fabry disease (Fabrazyme) and on-going ERT clinical trials (FDA “Breakthrough” status) for Niemann- Pick B disease, both in partnership with Genzyme. In addition, he was a scientific founder of Amicus Therapeutics (NASDAQ; FOLD), which is developing oral pharmacologic chaperone therapy for Fabry disease (EMA-approved in 2016), Pompe disease, and other disorders. Currently, his laboratory is using gene editing technology to engineer gene therapy in the mouse model of Fabry disease with Sangamo Therapeutics.

Dr. Alice L. Yu, M.D., Ph.D

Alice L. Yu, M.D., Ph.D. is an Academician of Academia Sinica in Taiwan. She has been a Distinguished Chair Professor of the Institute of Stem Cell & Translational Cancer Research at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital & Chang Gung University since 2013 and Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at the University of California in San Diego.

From 2003 to May 2013, Dr. Yu served as a Distinguished Research Fellow and Associate Director at the Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, in Taiwan. Prior to this, she was the Chief of Pediatric Hematology Oncology at the University of California in San Diego. She has been a long-time member of the Children’s Oncology Group in the United States, serving on the Steering Committee of Neuroblastoma. She is also a member of various scientific committees and associations.

As a pioneer in cancer immunotherapy, Dr. Yu has taken an anti-GD2 monoclonal antibody (Dinutuximab) from preclinical to phase III clinical trial, culminating in its FDA approval for the treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma in 2015. This marks the first immunotherapeutic agent to target carbohydrate antigen. Treatment with anti-GD2 has since become standard of care for high risk neuroblastoma. For another prevalent tumor-associated glycan, Globo H, her group has demonstrated the adverse impact of its expression on the clinical outcome of patients with hepatoma, cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancer. She has also uncovered the roles of Globo H in cancer as an immune checkpoint molecule and an angiogenic factors, providing rationales for the development of Globo H-targeted immunotherapeutics.

She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Advances in Neuroblastoma Research Association in 2025, Pediatric Oncology Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in 2020, Excellence in Technology Transfer Award from Federal Laboratory Consortium, USA in 2016, The 55th Academic Award from the Ministry of Education, The 19th Wang Min-Ning Memorial Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Development Medical Science and Technology, National Health and Society, Year 2000 “Key to Life” Award from Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, USA, etc.

Prof Sandra Strauss, MD PhD FRCP

Sandra Strauss is Professor of Medical and Teenage Young Adult (TYA) Oncology and a Consultant Medical Oncologist. She specialises in the systemic treatment of bone and soft tissue sarcoma and leads the clinical service at University College London Hospital, part of the London Sarcoma Service, one of the largest sarcoma services in Europe.

Her academic post is based within University College London and is focused on translational and clinical research to develop novel therapies for sarcoma patients. She has over 15 years’ experience as a chief and principal investigator for international and national clinical trials. She chairs the executive committee of the EuroEwing consortium (EEC), a pan-European collaboration that has brought together clinicians, scientists and patient advocates to improve outcome for patients with Ewing sarcoma, conducting practice-changing clinical trials with focused translational research. She chairs the UK NCRI Sarcoma Clinical Studies Group Bone Subgroup and is the current sarcoma track chair of European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO).

She is an executive Committee member of FOSTER (Fight Osteosarcoma through European Research), a scientific committee member of SIOPE, the European Society of paediatric oncology, and ESMO rare cancer and sarcoma annual meeting.

She is an executive member of the Hibiscus Harmonization International Bone Sarcoma Consortium (HIBiSCus), a member of European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and Innovative Therapies for Children with Cancer (ITCC) consortium.

Arrigo Recordati

Arrigo Recordati believed research was the most powerful asset for the pharmaceutical industry. He became head of the family business in 1951, at the age of 23, and transformed the family pharmaceutical laboratory employing 325 people into an international company listed since 1984 on the Italian Stock Exchange.

Arrigo Recordati’s remarkable life came to a premature end at the age of 71, in 1999.

Under his direction, in 1953 the company’s headquarters and pharmaceutical plant moved from Correggio, a small town in the Emilia region of Italy, to Milan, the capital of Italian business. During this time Arrigo Recordati provided the company with a stronger competitive advantage by updating its research facilities with advanced pharmacological laboratories.

In the 1950s and 60s, Arrigo Recordati relied on two strong beliefs: scientific research and internationalization. To maximize the results of Recordati research, he established subsidiaries in Brazil and Mexico. Arrigo Recordati also fostered a close relationship with the United States, signing among other things a strategic partnership agreement with Syntex Corporation (acquired by Roche Corporation in 1990) – at that time a company involved in cutting-edge research on the synthesis of steroid hormones.

Arrigo Recordati strongly believed in the power of scientific research to drive the growth of the pharmaceutical industry and provide products beneficial to public health and individual well-being. Efloxate (1955), a coronary vasodilator for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, was the first compound to originate from Recordati’s research laboratories during Arrigo Recordati’s leadership. Other original molecules developed and marketed during his leadership include: dimefline (1958), a respiratory analeptic, flavoxate (1957), a urinary antispasmodic, tibezonium iodide (1971), an oral antiseptic, fenticonazole (1978), an antimycotic and lercanidipine (1984), a calcium channel blocker for the treatment of hypertension. In particular, flavoxate was the first original New Chemical Entity developed by an Italian company to be approved by FDA (Federal Drug Administration) in the United States.

Arrigo Recordati also believed that even small companies – if managed with vigor and imagination – can compete effectively in the pharmaceutical arena. In 1984 Recordati was listed on the Italian Stock Exchange, completing its transformation from a small, family-run operation to a modern, professional, publicly listed company.

After 48 years of intense and challenging leadership, Arrigo Recordati passed away, leaving a solid, international business projected into the future.