The Lucilla Piccari PH-ILD Research Award
Written by Dr. Patty George
Before the 2024 World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension, I reached out to Dr. Lucilla Piccari with a simple idea: let’s bring people together for a 5K walk before the meeting. She didn’t hesitate—she jumped in wholeheartedly and organized our first Global Unity Walk. Lucilla found the perfect spot, handled all the logistics, and kept the focus exactly where it belonged: on the patients. She reached out to PHA Europe, support groups across Spain, and colleagues everywhere, and made fun videos for the socials. And on a beautiful day in Barcelona, more than 100 people came together to walk in solidarity—an incredible morning by the beach captured in the video below.
In the time I spent with Lucilla, both during the Unity Walk and filming our Live From Barcelona Patient Educational Series, and in the precious in between moments and conversations, I saw firsthand her rare combination of scientific passion, kindness, and unwavering dedication to people living with PH.
On behalf of Gossamer, we extend our deepest appreciation for Dr. Lucilla Piccari’s contributions to the field of PH-ILD. For those who may not know her, Dr. Piccari was a Pulmonologist and Research Physician in the Pulmonary Hypertension Unit at Hospital del Mar, Barcelona with over 60 publications which I know we all reference on a regular basis. She was also the Coordinator of the Spanish Registry of Pulmonary Hypertension in Lung Disease and the Director of the Pulmonary Vascular Research Program at the Spanish Respiratory Society. Probably most importantly, Lucilla was fiercely dedicated to her patients. Our friends at Gossamer have worked with her to develop the SERANATA trial studying seralutinib for the treatment of PH-ILD, where she fervently advocated for reflection on the patient experience when designing the SERANATA trial.
In considering what I wanted to say today, I found a manuscript recently published in the American Journal of Critical Care titled Meaningful Recognition from Bench to Bedside and in this paper they state that Critical care clinical practice and related research are by nature, challenging fields. Both clinical practice and research often value the final or tangible outcomes above all else. But really, success of the day to day work we do in both environments should be meaningfully recognized and Clinicians and researchers should envision systems that support the daily wins necessary to sustain clinical practice and advance the science.”
Dr. Piccari, myself and my friends and colleagues at Team PHenomenal Hope and Gossamer recognize Lucilla’s contribution to this field and we know more will join in this recognition and continue to advance the science of PH-ILD.
Steadfast in partnership with Team PHenomenal Hope and the organizations supporting this grant, we are confident that together we will continue advancing knowledge in the disease area that motivated Lucilla and drives our work today.
So, in her name, Team PHenomenal is creating a separate research award, the Lucilla Piccari PH-ILD Research Award for $100,000. This award will begin in 2027. This is for a woman who was dedicated to her patients and committed to PH-ILD, and this is a way to honor all she has done.
If you would like to make a gift to this fund in Lucilla’s name, please donate here.
