"Time is brain," neurologists often say about the need to act as quickly as possible in the event of a stroke. To save the patient's life. To minimize their risk of suffering aftereffects that could cause neurological and motor disabilities, such as speech problems or paralysis. When a stroke interrupts blood flow to the brain—almost always unpredictably—it ravages brain connections like a wildfire, impeding the nutrition of neuronal cells, which ultimately die. Every minute that passes, the affected person loses approximately 2 million neurons and 14,000 neuronal connections. Stroke causes irreversible damage to the affected tissue, and currently there are no therapies to repair it. But what would happen if it were possible to specifically treat the damaged area and restore its function? An international group of researchers has achieved this with a pioneering method: a stem cell transplant.

In Spain, there are 90,000 new cases of stroke each year, and more than 23,000 people die from this cerebrovascular disease. Thirty percent of those who survive end up dependent, making stroke the leading cause of disability in Spain, according to data from the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN). This was the case of the father of Iván Martínez, the executive director of the SEN. start-up Robopedics, who was left with half of his body paralyzed after suffering from the condition in 2015.