The support provided by the José Castillejo program will facilitate progress in identifying new therapeutic targets for Alzheimer’s disease
Dr. Sònia Sirisi Dolcet, researcher in the Neurobiology of Dementias group at the Institut de Recerca Sant Pau (IR Sant Pau), has been awarded a grant from the José Castillejo international mobility programme, promoted by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. This programme funds research stays at international centres of excellence with the aim of strengthening researchers’ training and international projection.
The grant will allow the researcher to carry out her project at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, one of the leading international centres for the study of neurodegenerative diseases. The three-month stay will take place at the Perelman School of Medicine, in the laboratory led by Dr. David Irwin, a specialist in neuropathology.
During this period, Dr. Sirisi will work on the characterization of new monoclonal antibodies targeting a fragment of the amyloid precursor protein (APP), an emerging target in Alzheimer’s research. “This grant represents a key opportunity to advance a line of research we are developing at IR Sant Pau and that may help us better understand mechanisms that have so far been poorly explored in Alzheimer’s disease,” explains the researcher.
Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by the accumulation of proteins such as amyloid-β and tau, considered the main neuropathological markers. However, in recent years, evidence has emerged pointing to the involvement of additional mechanisms in neuronal dysfunction. In this context, the project focuses on the study of APP-derived fragments that may play a relevant role in disease development.
The work will be based on the analysis of these antibodies in post-mortem human brain tissue from different neurodegenerative conditions, including sporadic and genetic Alzheimer’s disease, as well as other tauopathies. The aim is to identify specific accumulation patterns of these fragments and study their relationship with key disease processes such as amyloid deposition, tau pathology, and neuroinflammation. “Studying these antibodies in new cohorts will allow us to validate whether the pattern observed so far is reproducible across different neuropathological contexts and advance our understanding of their role in disease progression,” adds Dr. Sònia Sirisi.
This approach will enable the evaluation of the potential of these antibodies both as research tools and as possible therapeutic targets. This is particularly relevant in a context where, despite recent advances in amyloid-targeting treatments, there remains a need to develop more effective strategies to modify disease progression.
The collaboration between IR Sant Pau and the University of Pennsylvania is part of an established line of cooperation between both groups, which have already jointly participated in several studies in Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. This new research stay further strengthens this international collaboration and opens the door to future joint research lines in the field of neurodegenerative diseases.
