The BBVA Foundation has decided its first call for proposals for Biomedicine Chairs, an innovative scheme for the attachment of six leading international specialists to Spanish research centers and hospitals, to be funded with a combined amount of 1.2 million euros.
The BBVA Foundation Biomedicine Chairs seek to recognize and promote world-class biomedical research conducted by Spanish scientific teams, by facilitating the temporary attachment of researchers of any nationality with a distinguished scientific record. The scheme offers Spanish groups of excellence a tailored and flexible mechanism to enlarge their international experience, favoring knowledge transfer and the strengthening of relationship networks with researchers in other countries who have made outstanding contributions in their specialist fields.
In this first edition the BBVA Foundation has awarded six Biomedicine Chairs, three for basic research and three for clinical research, each one financed with 200,000 euros.
RESEARCH ON HEPATIC DISEASES, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES AND CANCER
In basic research, the BBVA Foundation will facilitate the incorporation of Richard Finnell, president and executive director of the Texas Institute of Genomic Medicine in Houston, to research center CIC bioGUNE. Finnell will work with the team led by José María Mato on the study of non alcoholic steatohepatitis, a liver disease typically associated with obesity, insulin resistance or diabetes and which may progress to cause cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma.
David T. Curiel, director of the Division of Human Gene Therapy at the University of Alabama (United States), will join the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) to work with Bernardo Nadal on the therapeutic use of stem cells in cardiovascular diseases. David Curiel’s latest research has focused on the use of stem cells for repairing myocardial lesions.
The third chair in basic research goes to Evangelina Nogales, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Nogales will work with Alfonso Valencia’s team at the Spanish Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) on the analysis and three-dimensional characterization of certain macromolecular complexes implicated in the development of cancer.
CRANEOENCEPHALIC TRAUMA REHABILITATION
The chairs awarded for clinical research include an ambitious study on neurorehabilitation in craneoencephalic trauma, to be conducted at the Institut Guttmann de Neurorehabilitación with the collaboration of researcher Álvaro Pascual-Leone, full professor of neurology and neuroscience at Harvard University. Pascual-Leone, considered a world leader in his specialty, will work with José M. Tormos’ team on strategies to minimize the consequences of craneoencephalic trauma and promote neurological rehabilitation in patients using non invasive techniques.
Mark Slevin, a researcher in the School of Biology, Chemistry and Health Sciences at the Manchester Metropolitan University (United Kingdom), will join the Cardiovascular Research Center run jointly by the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and the Instituto Catalán de Ciencias Cardiovasculares (ICCC), where he will accompany the team led by Lina Badimon in their research into the cellular mechanisms of vascular remodeling in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms triggering angiogenesis (generation of new capillary blood vessels from pre-existing vessels), as a first step to developing therapeutic treatments that allow the modulation of blood vessel formation, because improvement in collateral circulation has been shown to have an important beneficial effect on patient recovery after infarct.
The third clinical research chair has been granted to Andrés T. Blei, professor of medicine and surgery at Northwestern University (United States). Blei will be temporarily attached to Vicente Arroyo's team at Hospital Clínic i Provincial de Barcelona to develop a Latin American group of clinical trials in hepatic diseases. The research conducted will test the hypothesis that the administration of albumin supplements can shorten the duration of hepatic encephalopathy episodes (a disorder whereby the cerebral function deteriorates due to increased blood levels of toxic substances a healthy liver would have eliminated) in cirrhosis sufferers.