The study Activation of facilitation calcium channels in chromaffin cells by D1 dopamine receptors through a cAMP/protein kinase A-dependent mechanism, published by Nature in 1990 (348:239-242) was awarded the third Esteve Foundation Research Price. The authors of this study were Investigator C. Rodríguez Artalejo, from the Department of Pharmacology of the Faculty of Medicine of the Autonomous University of Madrid, and her collaborators M.A. Ariano, R.L. Perlman and A.P. Fox. The jury considered that this was a fundamental contribution to the study of the relationships between calcium channels and neurotransmitters. Formed by Profs. Gerhard Levy (United States), Walter Osswald (Portugal) and Sergio Erill (Spain), the jury emphasized the major advance made by this study in the knowledge of nervous system functioning and hence in the design of therapeutic strategies in the field of neurology and psychopharmacology.