Institut de Recerca Sant Pau - Centre CERCA
A multidisciplinary team has uncovered a key mechanism that allows the human bacterium Mycoplasma pneumoniae—responsible for atypical pneumonia and other respiratory infections—to obtain cholesterol and other essential lipids directly from the human body. The discovery has been published in Nature Communications.
The Sant Pau Research Institute (IR Sant Pau) has led a multicenter project that redefines what is considered normal cognitive performance. The work, carried out in collaboration with Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla in Santander, and the CITA-Alzheimer Foundation in San Sebastián, has resulted in two complementary scientific articles published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring (DADM), which establish new cognitive reference standards based exclusively on individuals without amyloid pathology and demonstrate their ability to improve early diagnosis.
A research team led by Dr. Àlex Bayés, Head of the Molecular Physiology of the Synapse Group at the Institut de Recerca Sant Pau (IR Sant Pau), has achieved what for decades had been an elusive goal: obtaining a precise, differentiated molecular portrait of individual synaptic types in the hippocampus, the brain structure that serves as the core of learning and memory.
The Sant Pau Research Institute (IR Sant Pau) has appointed David González Gil as its new general manager, a nomination approved by the Foundation’s Board of Trustees at its extraordinary session on October 6. David González officially took office on December 9, with the aim of driving a new phase of growth and consolidation for the center.
The new XWHIN (Women’s Health Innovation Network), coordinated by the Institut de Recerca Sant Pau (IR Sant Pau), has been established with the support of the Agency for the Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR), which has awarded funding of 1 million euros under the Xarxes d’R+D+I 2025 call. This initiative represents a recognition of IR Sant Pau’s leadership in responsible research with a gender perspective and strengthens its role as a key player in Catalonia’s health R&D&I ecosystem.
