Dr Elba Pascual Goñi has been awarded the Benson Clinical Research Fellowship by GBS CIDP International Foundation in the United States. Dr. Pascual is a neurologist and researcher at the neuromuscular diseases group in the Research Institute of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau – IIB Sant Pau.
The project that Dr Pascual will carry out for three years is entitled “Biomarkers in the diagnosis and follow up of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathies (CIDP)” and aims to investigate new antibodies, CIDP-activity biomarkers, as well as to develop wearable biomechanical technology to improve both diagnosis and monitoring of this disease.
The fellowship, endowed with nearly US$ 400,000, is the third awarded by the GBS CIDP Foundation International in honour of Robert Benson, a survivor of Guillain-Barré syndrome, and his wife. The GBS CIDP Foundation International is a global nonprofit organization supporting individuals and their families affected by Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), and related conditions through a commitment to support, education, research and advocacy.
CIDP is a clinically heterogeneous and pathophysiologically diverse group of autoimmune diseases of the peripheral nerves. Autoantibodies have proven useful as disease-specific biomarkers to group these diseases according to their pathogenesis. Also, CIDP lacks disease-activity biomarkers. Finding disease-specific biomarkers informing about nerve status and correlating with response to therapies is crucial to optimize patient care and clinical research in CIDP. Finally, technological aids, such as wearable systems of biomechanical sensors, may improve clinical monitoring assessment in CIDP patients.
“Having new biomarkers that allow us to know the progression and/or response of the disease to treatments, as well as having wearable biomechanical monitoring devices, will help improve patient monitoring and therapeutic decision-making”” explains Dr Pascual Goñi.
