A project led by the BBRC receives funding from Barcelona City Council and ”la Caixa” Foundation to study the impact of environmental pollution on brain health

Dr. Natàlia Vilor-Tejedor, researcher and leader of the Genetic Neuroepidemiology and Biostatistics team at the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), a research center of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, coordinates the environMENTALment project, one of the 14 funded by the City Council of Barcelona and ”la Caixa” Foundation in the 2023 call. In total, €2M will be distributed for projects that provide innovative solutions to urban challenges such as community health and sustainability and climate change.

The BBRC project, in collaboration with the Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), the Barcelona Institute for Global Health and the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG), will receive 149,475.90 euros to investigate the impact of environmental pollution on brain health. Its main goal is to evaluate the effect of selected urban environmental exposures on biomarkers of neurodegeneration and aging that indicate subtle signs of accelerated deterioration. Furthermore, the study will seek to determine to what extent this impact depends on the genetics of the individuals.

The beneficiary research groups collected the awards at a presentation ceremony in the Chronicles Hall of Barcelona City Council. The Deputy Mayor for Economy, Finance, Economic Promotion and Tourism, Jordi Valls, and the director of the Area of Relations with Research and Health Institutions of ”la Caixa” Foundation, Ignasi López, attended the event.

14 projects with 34 entities involved

The 14 projects that will receive these grants have been the ones that have achieved the best score among the 51 projects that were presented. They involve a total of 34 entities, and focus on one of the two themes that were proposed for this call: community health or sustainability and climate change. The teams of researchers have 18 months to develop their projects.

The call for subsidies for scientific research projects is part of the Barcelona Science Plan 2020-2023 and is the result of a collaboration agreement between ”la Caixa” Foundation and Barcelona City Council.