The University of Barcelona takes part in four research projects on neurodegenerative diseases, antimalarial drugs, minority pathologies and vascular malformations that will receive grants from the CaixaResearch call for research in health 2024. This grants are promoted by the La Caixa Foundation to provide results that benefit people's health and well-being. The call, now in its seventh year, will provide funding of 25.7 million euros for a total of 29 new biomedical research projects of excellence with a high social impact in basic, clinical and translational research. This year, the selected initiatives - out of a total of 580 submitted - will be developed over the next three years in research centres, hospitals and universities in Spain and Portugal, in collaboration with other international institutions.
The grants were awarded yesterday, Tuesday 12 November, at CaixaForum Madrid, in a ceremony attended by Jordi García Fernández, Vice-Rector for Research at the UB. This philanthropic call for research in biomedicine and health has the collaboration of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) of Portugal and the Luzón Foundation.
Under the new edition of the grants, the UB is a participating entity in the scientific consortia that will promote the following four biomedical research projects.
Tau protein and neurodegenerative diseases
Within the framework of the call, the expert Mohit Kumar, Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Department of Inorganic and Organic Chemistry of the Faculty of Chemistry of the UB, participates in the project "Early detection of neurodegenerative diseases through the study of tau protein aggregates". Lead researcher Ana Pina, from the António Xavier Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology (ITQB), and Luísa Alves, from the Local Health Unit of Western Lisbon (ULSLO) in Portugal, are collaborating in the project. With a budget of 999,994.87 euros, the project aims to develop a tool to detect aggregates of tau protein - an essential component of neuronal structure that is altered in various neurological diseases - in order to identify and differentiate abnormal tau proteins and be able to carry out an early diagnosis of these pathologies.
Overcoming the resistance of the parasite that causes malària
Professor Diego Muñoz-Torrero, from the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutic Chemistry at the UB's Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences, is taking part in the project "New drugs against malaria based on a mechanism of action linked to the same biology as the Plasmodium parasite", led by Xavier Fernández-Busquets, from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), with the participation of Zbynek Bozdech, from the Nanyang University of Technology in Singapore. It has received a grant of 907,923.10 euros, and will focus on discovering new drugs that selectively block the activity of proteins involved in the redox balance and cause the death of the parasite, in order to develop more effective and safer drugs for children and pregnant women, who are particularly vulnerable to the disease.
A minority and lethal disease affecting children
Professor Antonella Consiglio, from the Department of Pathology and Experimental Therapeutics of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Institute of Biomedicine of the UB (IBUB), is a member of the project team "Searching for a care for a lethal degenerative genetic disease affecting children". She is accompanied by the principal investigator, Aurora Pujol, from the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL); Manel Esteller, professor at the Department of Physiological Sciences and of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the UB and member of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, and Ela España (Spanish Association against Leukodystrophies). The project receives a grant of 999,782.47 euros to elucidate the molecular basis and improve understanding of adrenoleukodystrophy, a rare hereditary neurometabolic disease. The most severe variant - infantile cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy - is degenerative and lethal and affects children between the ages of five and ten. The results may pave the way for future clinical trials and will facilitate the implementation of neonatal screening for early diagnosis.
One of the leading causes of strokes
Professor Susana Amézqueta, from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Chemistry of the UB's Faculty of Chemistry, is also a member of the project team "A new and more effective therapeutic strategy to treat cerebral arteriovenous malformations". The initiative is led by Marc Ribó, from the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) and also involves Víctor F. Puntes, from the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), and Fernanda da Silva Andrade, from the Centre for Biomedical Research Network in the area of Bioengineering, biomaterials and nanomedicine (CIBERBBN). It is endowed with 998,684.72 euros and will address the use of oncogenic mutations present in cerebral arteriovenous malformations - one of the main causes of haemorrhagic stroke in children and young people - as a target for designing future therapies that are less invasive, more effective and more adaptable to other systemic malformations.
In addition to the above projects, in which the UB is a participating entity, it is also worth mentioning that Professor Aleix Prat, from the Department of Medicine at the UB's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Hospital Clínic and IDIBAPS, is a member of the team of the project "Better understanding the plasticity of metastatic tumour cells to fight breast càncer", led by Roger Gomis, from the Barcelona Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona). Under this initiative, funded with 664,165.90 euros, the experts will study in depth the factors that confer plasticity to metastatic tumour cells - a necessary condition to be able to adapt successfully to new environaments - and, thus, try to find new ways to slow down the process of development of secondary metastasis associated with breast cancer.
