Dr. Marta del Campo, director of the Fluid Biomarkers Platform at the BBRC, receives the Ramón y Cajal grant

The researcher and director of the Fluid Biomarkers Platform at the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), Dr. Marta del Campo, has received a Ramón y Cajal 2023 grant, awarded by the State Research Agency (AEI) of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. These prestigious grants aim to promote the incorporation of research personnel with outstanding scientific careers in research organizations, and contribute to their stabilization in the country's scientific system. In this 2023 edition, 51 professionals in the area of Biomedicine have benefited from them. The grant amounts to a total of 251,800 euros, which will be used to finance Dr. del Campo's contract and cover expenses directly related to the execution of research activities.

In addition, Dr. del Campo has also obtained funding for the coPATH-AD study within the framework of the Knowledge Generation Projects 2023, also awarded by the AEI. With a grant of 210,000 euros, the project will focus on improving dementia diagnostic tools through the use of advanced biomarkers. Specifically, it will seek to identify concurrent protein pathologies, such as TDP43 and α-synuclein, and analyze how the presence of these co-pathologies affects the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

These tools will be key to the diagnosis of dementias such as Lewy body dementia or specific cases of frontotemporal dementia. In this way, the project will contribute to obtaining precise diagnoses, personalized treatments and better-directed clinical trials, significantly advancing research and treatment of different types of dementia in line with precision medicine and innovative therapeutic targets.

Dr. del Campo has a degree in Biology from the Autonomous University of Madrid, a master's degree in Biotechnology and a doctorate in Medicine with a specialization in Biomarkers in Alzheimer's from the VU University medical center (VUmc) in Amsterdam. She has worked on different projects related to the discovery of new biomarkers in biofluids. Her main interest lies in understanding the pathophysiological mechanisms that give rise to the different types of dementia, and translating this knowledge into possible therapeutic targets and new diagnostic tests.

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Both grants will contribute to the advancement of Dr. del Campo's lines of research at the BBRC, focused on the development and validation of new biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.

The grant RYC2023-043831-I is funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the ESF+.

The project PID2023-153312OB-I00 is funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ERDF, EU.