Deciphering the immune system: the great center of future medicine settles in Barcelona

BarcelonaThis Friday, Barcelona will reaffirm its ambition to become a scientific capital with the first center in the State entirely dedicated to the study of immunotherapy, and one of the few in Europe, the CaixaResearch Institute. The study of the immune system's function against some of the world's most frequent diseases, such as cancer, Alzheimer's, or tuberculosis, is at the forefront of modern medicine, and there are increasingly more treatments aimed at stimulating the body's defenses. In recent decades, these immunotherapies have revolutionized the approach to some pathologies that were previously incurable, but their potential is vast and, as yet, little explored. The Catalan capital will inaugurate its new facility this Friday and will become a hub of advanced research in this expanding field.

Catalonia is one of the regions in Europe with the most clinical trials in cancer, it has a diverse and increasingly extensive ecosystem of research centers and hospitals, and from 2028 onwards, it will have a major

hub for biomedicine crowned with the new Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), at the Ciutadella del Coneixement. For Ernest Nadal, research director at the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), this highly favorable context for research in Barcelona is the legacy of many researchers in the city, who from now on will have a new agent for scientific collaboration. "That they are betting on immunotherapy is not by chance. It is one of the most transformative treatments in cancer, but also in other diseases, and there are still many challenges and much room for improvement," says the expert.

The new center, funded with an investment of 100 million euros and covering an area of 20,000 m², is located opposite the CosmoCaixa Science Museum. The forecast is that around forty groups and half a thousand researchers will work there with the aim of finding solutions to present and future human health challenges through basic science, preclinical development of drugs, technologies, and advanced therapies. This Friday, it will be inaugurated by King Felipe VI; the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa; and the President of the La Caixa Foundation, Isidre Fainé, who will explain all the details of the facility.

Scientific leadership

The center has already announced some of the professionals who will lead the center, such as the neurologist and researcher at IDIBAPS-Clínic, Josep Dalmau, recognized as the discoverer of several autoimmune encephalitis syndromes, who will maintain a dual position shared between his current institute and the CaixaResearch Institute. It will also feature the Argentine doctor in biochemistry Gabriel Rabinovich, who will combine his work in Barcelona with his job as a senior researcher at the Institute of Biology and Experimental Medicine in Buenos Aires, and who is the founder of the biotechnology company Galtec, has participated in the publication of more than 300 scientific articles and has received numerous awards, among other personalities.

Immunologist and expert in vaccines and infectious diseases Gemma Moncunill joins the center from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), where she will continue to maintain collaboration projects. The expert will work to improve the efficacy and duration of vaccines, especially in vulnerable populations, and to understand the impact of infections on the immune system. It will also feature the Murcian immunologist María Martínez López, who has completed her postdoctoral studies at the Fundação Champalimaud in Lisbon with a Junior Leader grant from the La Caixa Foundation and is an expert in a type of cells that coordinate the immune response.