A Second Coordinated Project and €3.3 Million Expected From Horizon Europe

The Sant Pau Research Institute (IR Sant Pau) continues to consolidate its position as an international benchmark in biomedical research, with a growing presence in European projects and new leadership responsibilities. The selection of four projects in the latest Horizon Europe calls, including UNSOLVED-CARDS, the second project that IR Sant Pau will coordinate within this program, reinforces this trajectory and highlights the competitiveness of its teams and their capacity to lead international consortia.

UNSOLVED-CARDS, RESTART, and RECALL, the three selected research and innovation actions, foresee €3,295,638 in funding for IR Sant Pau, within projects whose combined budgets total €22,491,205.98. They are joined by participation in EXACT-EU, a cooperation initiative in advanced therapies. The projects are currently in the grant agreement preparation phase, pending formalization.

“International collaboration allows us to bring together complementary samples, data, and expertise to address questions that require a scale beyond that of a single center. These results reflect the work of the research teams and the units that support them in preparing proposals and managing projects,” says Dr. Jordi Surrallés, Director of IR Sant Pau.

Differences Between Women and Men in Cardiovascular Risk

UNSOLVED-CARDS, which will be coordinated by Dr. Maria Sabater-Lleal and Dr. Israel Fernández-Cadenas, received the highest possible evaluation score, 15 out of 15 points. With an expected duration of five years, it brings together 11 organizations from nine countries and has a proposed budget of nearly €7 million, of which €2,796,570 corresponds to the institute.

The research will focus on three cardiovascular diseases: coronary artery disease, ischemic stroke, and abdominal aortic aneurysm. Its objective is to understand which biological mechanisms are shared by women and men and which are specific to each sex to explain differences in the risk of developing these diseases. To achieve this, the project will combine genetic information, protein levels, and DNA methylation patterns, which are chemical marks that can be influenced by environmental factors and affect gene activity.

During its discovery and validation phases, the project will use data and samples from 6,800 people from partner cohorts and biobanks and will analyze 300 tissue and thrombus samples related to these diseases. Blood studies will be complemented by techniques that make it possible to examine the molecular characteristics of different cell types in affected tissues.

Risk Prediction and New Therapeutic Strategies

The analysis will also incorporate social, environmental, and behavioral factors to study how they interact with biological differences between the sexes. This information will be integrated into risk prediction models and used to select biomarkers for the development of new diagnostic tools. In addition, the consortium will create a public atlas of molecular findings to facilitate consultation and use by the scientific and medical communities.

The therapeutic arm of the project will focus on developing nanocarriers targeted to specific cells, capable of reducing the production of proteins that are present in excess or delivering deficient proteins. These strategies will be evaluated in cellular and animal models of atherosclerosis as preclinical proof-of-concept studies to assess their safety, specificity, and therapeutic potential.

Other IR Sant Pau researchers participating in the project include Dr. Manel Esteller, Dr. Ugutz Unzueta, and Dr. Noemí Rotllan, who will contribute their expertise in epigenetics, nanomedicine, and preclinical models of atherosclerosis. The institute will assume responsibilities for coordinating samples and databases, epigenomic analyses, the development of nanocarriers, and their experimental evaluation.

Infections, Brain Aging, and Advanced Therapies

The center’s international participation is also expanding through RESTART, which is dedicated to improving knowledge and care of post-infectious persistent syndromes, including those associated with COVID-19, such as Long COVID, as well as sepsis. Coordinated by the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, the project also received 15 out of 15 points and has a budget of nearly €8 million, with €242,071.80 allocated to IR Sant Pau.

Dr. Otavio Ranzani is the institute’s principal investigator and will lead the work package focused on identifying modifiable risk factors and prevention opportunities. The consortium will combine cohort studies, analyses of biological mechanisms, evaluation of pharmacological treatments, and rehabilitation tools, together with proposals to incorporate the knowledge generated into healthcare systems.

Meanwhile, RECALL, coordinated by ISGlobal, will investigate how exposure to chemicals, particularly pesticides and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances—known as PFAS—may influence brain health and cognitive aging throughout life. It will pay particular attention to stages such as pregnancy, the menopausal transition, and midlife, as well as to people in preclinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease. This project received 14 out of 15 points and has an expected budget of nearly €7.5 million, of which €256,996.20 corresponds to the institute.

Dr. Alexandre Bejanin will be the principal investigator for IR Sant Pau in this initiative, and his team will participate in the analysis of multiple samples (blood, cerebrospinal fluid, hair, and dust) from older adults across the Alzheimer’s spectrum to assess the distribution of contaminants and their relationship with the integrity of the blood-brain barrier, measured by magnetic resonance imaging. Both RESTART and RECALL have an expected duration of five years.

The fourth selected initiative, EXACT-EU, will help establish a European network of centers of excellence in advanced therapies. Coordinated by Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris, it will seek to improve cooperation among teams involved in the research, development, manufacturing, and access to these therapies. Dr. Javier Briones will be the researcher responsible for IR Sant Pau’s participation, with the institute joining as an affiliated entity of IDIBAPS.

The Cellular Immunotherapy and Gene Therapy group he leads has developed two academic CAR-T therapies that are being evaluated in clinical trials. These treatments use the patient’s own immune cells, genetically modified to recognize and attack the tumor. HSP-CAR30 is pioneering in Europe as an experimental treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma, while HSP-CAR19M is being studied in patients with B-cell lymphomas that are resistant to other treatments.

“We want these collaborations to continue beyond each individual project and help us consolidate teams and open new lines of research. Growing internationally should expand our capacity to generate knowledge that responds to patients’ needs,” concludes Dr. Jordi Surrallés.