The four-year, $182,080 grant will provide Pittman with mentored research training and will support his dissertation work, which focuses on the role of viscosity in basic cell behavior and function.

Yun and her team will use the award to develop a first-of-its-kind, tension-sensitive drug release system that targets only diseased cells, leaving healthy cells alone.

Awarded by ”la Caixa” Foundation and personally handed over by the King of Spain in an official ceremony, the ”la Caixa” Fellowship, conferred since 1982, is considered the most important in Spain and one of the most prestigious in Europe.