Dr. Josep Maria Argimon, appointed Director of the Scientific Infrastructure of the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center

Dr. Josep Maria Argimon has been appointed Director of Scientific Infrastructures at the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC) to lead a multidisciplinary group that will carry out observational research studies and clinical trials. Dr. Argimon will have the responsibility of achieving national and international strategic alliances with other research centers, as well as identifying opportunities and projects that promote the BBRC research.

These studies include the development of the Alfa Cohort, a study that currently has more than 2,700 participants and has the Impulse of the “la Caixa” Foundation and which will be enhanced with the aim of positioning the center at the forefront of research into the prevention of Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.

As explained by Dr. Argimon, "it is an exciting challenge to join this center of international reference. Being part of the project team started by Pasqual Maragall now 15 years ago is a privilege that will allow me to work to enhance the research that is currently being done on Alzheimer's prevention”.

For his part, Dr. Arcadi Navarro, Director of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, affirms that this incorporation places the BBRC “as a cutting-edge center in Alzheimer's research and promotes the work that is currently being done at a very important moment for the disease in which opens a new stage with potential treatments for the disease beginning to be available”.

Josep Maria Argimon holds a degree in medicine and a doctorate from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). He is a specialist in preventive medicine and public health, with a diploma in epidemiology and statistics from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris, a master’s degree in epidemiology and health planning from the University of Wales and a master’s degree in Evidence-Based Medicine from the University of Oxford.

In his extensive career, he was Minister of Health of the Generalitat de Catalunya between 2021 and 2022 and has held various positions in the Catalan Health Service, among which stand out Director of the Health Quality and Assessment Agency of Catalonia (AQuAS) or Director of the Catalan Health Institute. He has also been an international consultant in Latin America for the European Union and has experience in teaching at different universities.

Research infrastructures of the BBRC

The Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC) is the research center of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, promoted by the "la Caixa" Foundation since its creation, dedicated to the prevention of Alzheimer's disease and the study of the cognitive functions affected in healthy and pathological aging.

The BBRC has different research infrastructures such as the Alfa Study, promoted by the "la Caixa" Foundation since 2012. A research platform to identify the early characteristics of Alzheimer's that began with the aim of gathering information from the preclinical phase of the disease in order to understand its natural history. The cohort stands out internationally for the volume of participants, which exceeds 2,700 people without cognitive alterations, between 45 and 75 years of age, most of whom are sons and daughters of people with Alzheimer's. It is a unique, key research platform and valuable source of information for the BBRC research focused on the preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease, a symptom-free period that begins years before clinical symptoms appear.

We must also highlight the Beta-AARC project, a cohort study for the identification of blood biomarkers in the population with subjective cognitive decline. This study has the objective of knowing the factors that intervene at the beginning of the biological process of Alzheimer's disease and the biomarkers that predict its evolution. It includes 200 participants between the ages of 55 and 80 who will undergo a series of clinical, cognitive, imaging tests and determinations of biomarkers in blood and cerebrospinal fluid.