Belgian research couple rewarded for their work on incurable diseases

Press release FNRS (in French)

The Gagna & Van Heck International Prize for Incurable Diseases, a global award presented every three years by the FNRS, was presented for the first time to a Belgian team. Laurence Boon (Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc de Bruxelles, UCLouvain) and Miikka Vikkula (Institut de Duve, UCLouvain) were rewarded for their contribution to the understanding of vascular anomalies, leading to medical advances on an international scale.

They have been united for 30 years in work and in life, represent an example of biomedical vocation and work tirelessly to improve the daily lives of patients suffering from poorly understood diseases: Miikka Vikkula is Professor of Genetics at UCLouvain's Institut de Duve and Investigator of the WEL Research Institute; Laurence Boon is Professor, Clinical Physician and Coordinator of the Vascular Malformations Center at Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc in Brussels (UCLouvain).

“It's a great source of pride to have our work recognized in this way. This Award shows that medical advances are the result of long-term research,” said Miikka Vikkula.

Together, they have been rewarded for their contribution to a better understanding of orphan vascular diseases, and for the significant therapeutic advances they have made.
The Gagna & Van Heck International Prize for Incurable Diseases was presented to them on September 23 by Véronique Halloin, Secretary General of the FNRS.

“This Prize highlights our work in tandem, combining clinical excellence and fundamental research, which is essential for improving our patients' quality of life,” insisted Laurence Boon.

Vascular malformations or anomalies are rare diseases. However, there are around forty of them, which means that 3 people in a thousand suffer from them. 80% of which are genetic in origin, these clusters of malformed vessels lead to abnormal blood circulation in the regions concerned. These pathologies can affect any tissue or organ, causing chronic pain and bleeding. These diseases are extremely disabling, terribly painful and sometimes fatal, affecting adults and children alike.

Thanks to their complementary research teams, Miikka Vikkula and Laurence Boon have understood the origin and mechanism of the vast majority of these vascular anomalies, improving their diagnosis and paving the way for new therapeutic avenues worldwide.
In particular, they discovered that these malformations could be treated with a drug (Sirolimus), and even succeeded in treating a malformation in utero by administering the treatment to the mother during her pregnancy: a world first. Following a clinical trial with another drug, they were also able to save the hand of a 19-year-old girl who was scheduled for amputation.

Hundreds of patients have already benefited from these rapidly expanding clinical advances.

The Gagna A. & Ch. Van Heck International Prize for Incurable Diseases is a €75,000 prize awarded every three years by the FNRS and made possible by a private bequest. It is intended to reward a researcher or doctor whose work has contributed to the cure of a disease that is as yet incurable, or whose research has led to the hope of a cure in the near future. This is a prestigious prize with a global reach: previous winners have come from the USA, France, Great Britain and Germany.