The Sant Pau Research Institute (IR Sant Pau) has secured six Río Hortega 2025 contracts from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), a program designed to consolidate the careers of healthcare professionals who combine clinical practice with biomedical research.
These two-year grants will allow specialists with healthcare training and research experience to devote a significant portion of their time to research in hospital settings, integrating clinical practice with the generation of new knowledge. They aim to promote continuity in scientific careers at post-training stages and to strengthen translational clinical research within the National Health System.
This achievement consolidates the role of IR Sant Pau as an environment of excellence for training clinically oriented professionals with a strong research vocation. It underscores its commitment to the promotion of talent and the transfer of knowledge into clinical practice.
The new grants cover a wide range of areas, from cardiovascular diseases to neurosciences and genomics, and will be carried out in collaboration with established researchers at IR Sant Pau who lead competitive projects in their respective fields.
In the cardiovascular area, Dr. Jesús Díaz Gutiérrez, who will collaborate with the team led by Dr. Gemma Vilahur, will focus his work on studying the inflammatory and metabolic mechanisms involved in myocardial injury and in the progression of atherothrombosis. His research aims to understand how inflammation and lipid metabolism contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease and to identify new strategies to anticipate complications in patients with coronary artery disease. By applying molecular biology techniques and analyzing different cardiac imaging modalities, the project seeks to contribute to the development of more precise and personalized prevention strategies.
In the field of neurology, Dr. Joan Miquel Fernández Vidal, who will collaborate with Dr. Sònia Benítez, will direct his research toward cerebrovascular disorders. Dr. Fernández Vidal will study the role of lipid and inflammatory biomarkers associated with the progression of carotid atherosclerotic plaque. The aim is to identify factors that determine the risk of ischemic stroke and its recurrence, as well as the occurrence of other cardiovascular events. His project will combine clinical studies and laboratory analyses in patient cohorts to improve prognostic prediction. His work seeks to optimize stroke risk stratification and to guide therapeutic decision-making in a common condition with a major public health impact.
Also within the field of neurology, Dr. Júlia Peris Subiza, who will collaborate with Dr. Olivia Belbin, and Dr. Sara Rubio Guerra, affiliated with the team led by Dr. Ignacio Illán-Gala, will promote projects focused on neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Peris Subiza will orient her research toward the development of biomarkers to improve the diagnosis of mental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases and to assess treatment efficacy. Dr. Rubio Guerra, for her part, will focus her project on the clinical and biological characterization of frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), integrating neuroimaging techniques, analysis of proteins associated with neuronal damage, and longitudinal patient follow-up. Her research will help define biological subtypes of these conditions and improve diagnostic precision.
Also in the area of neurology, but with a stronger focus on omics tools, Dr. Franco Emanuel Appiani, in collaboration with Dr. Israel Fernández, will participate in projects exploring gene regulation mechanisms in neurological and metabolic diseases. Using large-scale genomic and proteomic techniques, his research will seek to identify key biological pathways and biomarkers with diagnostic or prognostic value. These studies will contribute to a more in-depth understanding of the molecular bases of various complex diseases and to building bridges between molecular biology and clinical practice.
Finally, in the field of neurosciences, Dr. Helena Codes Méndez will develop a project in collaboration among the neuromuscular, rheumatology, and multiple sclerosis units, under the coordination of Dr. Luis Querol. Trained as a rheumatologist, Dr. Codes will focus her research on the early detection and biomarker-based monitoring of neurological complications associated with systemic autoimmune diseases. The study aims to identify biological indicators that enable early recognition of nervous system involvement and monitoring of its progression, with the goal of improving diagnosis and clinical management of these patients. This is a cross-cutting project that integrates clinical and experimental knowledge and strengthens collaboration across different specialties in a field of growing clinical and research relevance.
Securing these Río Hortega contracts reinforces the role of IR Sant Pau as a reference environment for training and incorporating new generations of clinical professionals into research. The projects to be carried out under these grants reflect the center’s commitment to research aimed at improving the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases with a high public health impact.
