ITQB NOVA researcher wins €1M CaixaResearch Health Grant
Oeiras, 13th November 2024
The project led by ITQB NOVA researcher Ana Pina has won a CaixaResearch Health grant of 1M€ to promote the early detection of neurodegenerative diseases through the study of tau protein aggregates.
130 million people worldwide are expected to suffer from neurodegenerative diseases by 2050, according to the World Health Organization. Current diagnostic approaches focus on symptoms, making early detection difficult. Therefore, new methods are needed to detect these diseases early and accurately, opening the door to treating them at an early stage and slowing their progression.
Several neurodegenerative diseases are characterised by the accumulation of tau protein in the brain. This protein, which is essential for maintaining neuronal structure, undergoes a pathological transformation and accumulates in the form of tangles that eventually impair proper brain function, contributing to cognitive decline and the development and progression of the disease.
The study of tau protein aggregates holds great potential. However, the molecular complexity of the protein poses a major challenge. “We need new tools to isolate and study these aggregates, as well as the changing structures and compositions they acquire, in order to analyse how they impact development of the disease”, explains Ana Pina, ITQB NOVA Principal Investigator and leader of the project.
The project "Peptide-based systems as artificial compartments to diagnose nonAlzheimer Tauopathies diseases" will advance the development of a tau protein aggregate detection tool, called Pep-SICO, which uses fluorescent markers within artificial compartments to identify and differentiate abnormal tau proteins, with the aim of enabling early diagnosis of these diseases.
Pedro Mateus, Pedro Matos Pereira and Beatriz Royo, from ITQB NOVA, will also be working on this project, in collaboration with Cláudia Almeida, from Nova Medical School, Leonor Morgado, from NOVA FCT, Mohit Kumar, from Universitat de Barcelona, and Luísa Alves, from Unidade Local de Saúde de Lisboa Ocidental. "This recognition by La Caixa is a unique opportunity to push the boundaries of neurodegenerative disease research, aiming to make early detection a reality”, the researcher adds.
The CaixaResearch Health Call are sponsored by "La Caixa" Foundation and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. In this call, 25.7M€ million have been attributed to 29 biomedical and health research projects selected amongst 580 proposals. These projects, with potential value and social impact, whether in basic, clinical or translational research, will be developed over the next three years.
