We were delighted to share that Dr Chrissy Bolton received the prestigious 2025 Basic and Translational Science Prize from the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR).
The EULAR Basic and Translational Science Award was one of the most sought-after honours at the EULAR Congress, recognising the most outstanding scientific abstracts in basic and translational research. This highly competitive award was selected from thousands of submissions and celebrated work that advanced understanding of disease mechanisms and translated scientific discoveries into meaningful clinical impact.
Dr Bolton presented her research, titled “A multimodal dissection of spatial tissue niches associated with severity in childhood arthritis”, in the cutting-edge session on “Omics and New Targets in Spondyloarthropathy and Other Inflammatory Arthritis”.
Her award-winning research focused on studying childhood arthritis, known as juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), by examining joint tissue at a remarkably detailed level. The project aimed to uncover how interactions between different cell types in the joint lining worsened disease severity, with the goal of improving treatment choices for children through a more precise understanding of their disease.
The EULAR 2025 Congress took place in Barcelona, Spain, from 11 to 14 June at the Fira de Barcelona conference centre. The event brought together over 14,000 participants from across the world, including researchers, clinicians, and industry leaders, to share the latest scientific and clinical advances in rheumatology.
Dr Bolton’s award highlighted the remarkable progress of the research team in overcoming long-standing challenges in tissue-based studies of childhood arthritis, made possible through technological advances and collaborative effort. It also reflected the growing recognition of the importance of understanding disease mechanisms in children to improve long-term outcomes.
Dr Chrissy Bolton is a paediatric doctor and MRC Clinical Research Training Fellow undertaking her DPhil at the University of Oxford (Kennedy Institute) and is jointly supervised by Professor Adam Croft at the University of Birmingham. She is a co-investigator in the MAPJAG observational study. You can read more about Chrissy’s recent work in Science Translational Medicine (Vol 17, Issue 805) in our news section.