The PROAD project of the BBRC receives a secondary award of the Scientific Research Award for Health from the hna Foundation

The hna Foundation has recognized the project 'PROAD. Prognostic markers of cognitive impairment in people at risk of Alzheimer's disease', led by Dr. Federica Anastasi and Dr. Marc Suárez-Calvet, from the Biomarkers in Fluids and Translational Neurology Research Group of the BBRC, with an award in the third edition of the Health Scientific Research Award. The award, endowed with 50,000 euros, sought to finance in this call projects that contribute to the development of new biomarkers for the early detection and monitoring of Alzheimer's disease.

The PROAD project seeks to identify proteomic profiles (related to proteins) in blood that can predict cognitive decline in cognitively healthy people with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's. With this study, in which plasma samples from the ALFA+ cohort will be analysed, the BBRC team hopes to be able to find new prognostic biomarkers in the preclinical phase of the disease. In addition to Dr. Marc Suárez-Calvet and Dr. Federica Anastasi, Dr. Marta del Campo Milán and Dr. Paula Ortiz Romero will also participate, as well as predoctoral researchers Armand González Escalante and Luis Felipe Hernández de Villamizar.

This year, 19 nominations have been submitted for the Award, which aims to promote research in the fields of investigation and health, with preference for medium and long-term initiatives. The project 'Plasma biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease in a cohort of dementia in cognitively preserved nonagenarians', directed by Dra. Estrella Gómez Tortosa, from the Jiménez Díaz Foundation Health Research Institute, has received the first prize, endowed with 100,000 euros.

At the awards ceremony, which took place on June 1 in Madrid, Dr. Suárez-Calvet and Dr. Gómez Tortosa thanked the recognition of their projects and highlighted the research promotion work of the hna Foundation.

The hna Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 2018 by the National Brotherhood of Architects, Technical and Chemical Architects, Mutualidad de Previsión Social. The mission of the Foundation is the promotion of research projects in medicine and health for the benefit of patients and science, to promote the profession of architecture, technical architecture and chemistry, and to contribute to improving the quality of life of mutualists from hna.