Six projects were selected in the 2017 call in two cross-disciplinary fields of biomedical research: new molecular imaging techniques; and diseases linked to metabolic defects, which, like obesity, are growing in prevalence.

The BBVA Foundation’s program of Grants for Research Teams in Biomedicine seeks to promote highly innovative research with the potential to unlock significant advances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Funding is accordingly directed at consolidated teams with a solid track record of quality.

A total of 146 projects were submitted in the call: 42 in Molecular Imaging and 104 in Metabolism and Disease. The six projects selected for the three-year grants will each receive 125,000 euros. Some thirty odd researchers, an average of six per team, will work on the projects, based at centers in Barcelona, Madrid and Salamanca.

Support for scientific research and the production of frontier knowledge has for over a decade now been a cornerstone of the BBVA Foundation’s activity. To advance this goal, in 2014 it launched two new competitive calls: the Leonardo Grants, providing funds for the personal projects of mid-career researchers and cultural creators, and the Grants for Scientific Research Teams. Both schemes were devised to promote excellence and innovative talent, with awards decided in a transparent, keenly competitive process by committees of experts in the subject area.

Two increasingly active cross-disciplinary areas: Molecular Imaging and Metabolism

While previous editions of the Grants for Research Teams in Biomedicine maintained a focus on cardiology, oncology and neurodegenerative diseases – three sets of conditions of wide social impact – the 2018 call was reserved for two increasingly active cross-disciplinary areas with strong translational potential across a spectrum of conditions and specialties: Molecular Imaging, and Metabolism and Disease. Both fields are driving advances in diagnosis, prognosis and treatment within the approach known as precision medicine, a new paradigm where the focus shifts from the disease as such to the study of groups of patients.

Firstly, advances in molecular imaging have already proved of immense worth not only by facilitating earlier diagnosis but also the development of less invasive, more effective treatments, with fewer side effects. Techniques like positron emission tomography (PET) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) can detect biochemical changes in cells at the initial stages of diseases like cancer or cardiovascular pathologies, even before the associated structural changes show up in images obtained using older techniques. Whereas these past images were able to reveal the morphological characteristics (mass and extension) of a particular lesion, molecular imagining steps things up a level, allowing us to visualize its behavior on the molecular and cellular scale, as well as how it is responding to therapy. This marks a qualitative leap facilitating improved diagnostic precision, the choice of the best treatment option according to patients’ biological characteristics, and the evaluation of therapeutic effectiveness and disease progression, bringing us closer to the goal of a truly personalized, precision medicine.

Secondly, a growing body of experimental evidence gathered in recent years has shown that metabolic alterations are a large factor in many diseases. Understanding the cause of atypical metabolic values constitutes “an open challenge in disease-oriented research,” in the words of the call conditions. New advances in this field mean a large number of metabolic alterations can be studied simultaneously, supplying new insights into the biological processes involved in classic metabolic disorders like diabetes or other obesity-related conditions but also in areas like cardiology or cancer, where it is transforming the way diseases are viewed. Among other contributions, cutting-edge research in metabolism has enabled non-invasive diagnosis of complex diseases, and can predict how a disease will progress in different sets of patients, as well as holding out the promise of new therapeutic targets.

PROJECTS FUNDING IN MOLECULAR IMAGING: 

• ‘BREIMPET: Early diagnosis of the most aggressive type of breast cancer’

• ‘MEDIROBOTS: Precision nanorobotics to combat tumors’

• ‘NANOINFAMIL10: Visualizing heart damage post-infarction’

PROJECTS FUNDING IN METABOLISM AND DISEASE: 

• ‘LipoBatten: in pursuit of a treatment for a neurodegenerative disease’

• ‘MitoCholERaxis: new tools against obesity-related diseases’

• ‘MitoFuss: a new link between ageing and cancer’

EVALUATION COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP:

All entries under team grant calls are evaluated in a keenly competitive, open process in the charge of expert committees. In the two Biomedicine sub-areas covered by this call, the committees had the following make-up:

Molecular Imaging

The evaluation committee for Scientific Research Teams in Biomedicine in the Molecular Imaging sub-area was chaired by Juan Carlos Alonso, Head of Molecular Medicine at Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón. Remaining members were: Irene Casáns, Head of Nuclear Medicine at Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia; Iván Peñuelas, Director of the Radiopharmacy Unit at Clínica Universidad de Navarra; Andrés Santos, Biomedical Imaging Technology Group Leader at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM); Pilar Tamayo, Head of Nuclear Medicine at Hospital Universitario de Salamanca; and Juan Antonio Vallejo, Director of the Nuclear Medicine Clinical Management Unit at Hospital Universitario Reina Sofía.

Metabolism and Disease

The evaluation committee for Scientific Research Teams in Biomedicine in the Metabolism and Disease sub-area was chaired by José María Mato, General Director of CIC bioGUNE. Remaining members were: Lisardo Boscá, Research Professor at the Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas Alberto Sols (IIBM) (CSIC-UAM); José Manuel Cuezva, Professor of Biochemistry at the Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CBMSO) (UAM); José Antonio Enríquez, Functional Genetics of the Oxidative Phosphorylation System Group Leader at the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC); Jorgina Satrústegui, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CBMSO) (UAM); and Guillermo Velasco, Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM).