The Institut de Recerca Sant Pau (IR Sant Pau) has been awarded three research activity intensification grants in the 2025 call of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII). This program is aimed at healthcare professionals with an established scientific track record and seeks to relieve their clinical workload partially so they can devote a greater proportion of their time to research, without compromising patient care.
These grants make it possible to more closely integrate research into clinical practice, fostering the development of projects focused on improving the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of highly complex diseases. In this edition, the grant recipients are Dra. Ana Aulinas, Dr. Luis Prats Sánchez, and Dr. Ricardo Rojas-García, whose projects represent strategic areas of biomedical research at IR Sant Pau.
Dra. Ana Aulinas, a specialist in endocrinology and nutrition, focuses her research activity on hypothalamic and pituitary disorders, a group of rare conditions characterized by low prevalence and high diagnostic and therapeutic complexity. Dra. Aulinas coordinates the Functional Unit for Pituitary Disorders, a multidisciplinary unit that operates within the European Reference Network on Rare Endocrine Conditions (EndoERN). The unit is nationally recognized as a CSUR center for the diagnosis and treatment of complex pituitary disorders and is part of the XUEC for rare endocrine diseases. Thanks to this grant, she will be able to combine patient care for pituitary disorders with clinical and translational research in this field, within the framework of project PI24/01428. This project focuses on the study of comorbidities associated with hypothalamic damage and hypopituitarism and their relationship with the neurohormone oxytocin. In this way, IR Sant Pau’s participation is strengthened in projects aimed at improving the diagnosis and treatment of hypothalamic and pituitary diseases, as well as the quality of life of affected individuals.
Dr. Luis Prats Sánchez, a neurologist, is a member of the IR Sant Pau research group on cerebrovascular diseases and actively participates in the RICORS-ICTUS network. His work focuses on hemorrhagic stroke, with particular interest in the mechanisms that determine clinical outcomes and neurological recovery. With the support of this intensification grant, he will be able to expand his dedication to translational research and consolidate projects such as END-GROWTH (PI24/01009), which will compare best medical therapy with and without endovascular treatment. This will determine which strategy best predicts hematoma growth in patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ricardo Rojas-García, consultant physician in the Department of Neurology, will carry out his work within the framework of project PI23/00845, focused on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This intensification allows him to combine clinical activity with research in neuromuscular and neurodegenerative diseases, strengthening IR Sant Pau’s participation in studies that apply molecular biology and biomarker analysis to improve understanding of the disease. His expanded dedication will help advance clinical research in ALS and generate results with the potential for direct impact on the care of affected individuals.
The awarding of these three intensification grants reinforces IR Sant Pau’s commitment to applied clinical research and the promotion of clinical scientific talent. These projects, developed in close collaboration with the services of Hospital de Sant Pau, will contribute to generating knowledge that directly translates into improved patient care and advances in translational medicine.
