{"id":99182,"date":"2024-10-15T17:22:25","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T15:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcb.ub.edu\/ibec-receives-funding-from-the-us-national-institutes-of-health-to-advance-neural-regeneration\/"},"modified":"2024-10-17T17:12:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T15:12:16","slug":"ibec-receives-funding-from-the-us-national-institutes-of-health-to-advance-neural-regeneration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcb.ub.edu\/en\/ibec-receives-funding-from-the-us-national-institutes-of-health-to-advance-neural-regeneration\/","title":{"rendered":"IBEC receives funding from the US National Institutes of Health to advance neural regeneration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Zaida \u00c1lvarez, principal investigator at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pcb.ub.edu\/en\/empresa\/institut-de-bioenginyeria-de-catalunya-ibec\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IBEC<\/a>, based in the Barcelona Science Park, has received funding from the US <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nih.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Institutes of Health (NIH)<\/a> to develop stem cell-based models of the spinal cord. The project, coordinated by Professor Evangelos Kiskinis of Northwestern University in Chicago, also involves Dr Alberto Ortega of the IDIBELL. The <span class=\"Y2IQFc\" lang=\"en\">research is aimed at investigating <\/span>how the extracellular matrix of neurons changes at different stages of development in order to improve understanding of neurodegenerative diseases.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cell reprogramming technologies and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have revolutionised the study of the human central nervous system, enabling the creation of models to study neuronal development and neurological disease. However, culturing iPSC-derived neurons\u00a0<em>in vitro<\/em>\u00a0remains a challenge as they do not reach the maturity required to study neurodegenerative diseases. This is partly due to the lack of an adequate extracellular matrix (ECM), the structure that supports and regulates cells in the body.<\/p>\n<p>Now, this project -called &#8216;Refining iPSC-Based Spinal Cord Model Systems by Fabricating Developmentally Programmed Extracellular Matrix Cues&#8217;- proposes to address this challenge by studying how the ECM changes at different stages of development, from infancy to old age, using the spinal cord of mice and humans. Based on these findings, the researchers will design artificial arrays that mimic the natural ECM to improve the maturation and ageing of neurons in the laboratory. These advances will enable the development of better iPSC-based spinal cord models with applications in the study of disease and the development of therapies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Zaida \u00c1lvarez<\/strong> team at IBEC, the <a href=\"https:\/\/ibecbarcelona.eu\/biomaterial-for-neural-regeneration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Biomaterials for Neural Regeneration group<\/a>, will play a key role in the project. They will develop functionalised arrays with ECM proteins to enhance the maturation of human motor neurons in 2D cultures and design 3D platforms to mature spinal cord organoids. They will also carry out studies on the morphology, mechanics and degradation of the hydrogels that will act as substrates, and analyse the signals released by the ECM.<\/p>\n<p>According to <strong>\u00c1lvarez,<\/strong> \u2018This opportunity will allow us to deepen our study the of the extracellular matrix of the spinal cord and its influence on neural maturation. In the long term, the advances made in the functionalisation of matrices and tissue constructs could provide a new basis for effective treatments of spinal cord injuries and other neurodegenerative diseases&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The project will last five years and has a budget of more than $2.7 million, of which IBEC will receive more than $600,000, funded though the <a href=\"https:\/\/grants.nih.gov\/funding\/activity-codes\/R01\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Research Project Grant Program (R01)<\/a> by NIH, one of the largest public funders of biomedical research in the world, which supports high-impact, independent research in specific areas of scientific interest. S<span class=\"Y2IQFc\" lang=\"en\">pecifically this r<\/span>esearch reported was supported by the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nia.nih.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Institute on Aging (NIA)<\/a> of NHI.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00bb Link to the news:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/ibecbarcelona.eu\/ibec-receives-funding-from-the-us-national-institutes-of-health-to-advance-neural-regeneration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IBEC website [+]<\/a><\/p>\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\"><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zaida \u00c1lvarez, principal investigator at IBEC, based in the Barcelona Science Park, has received funding from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop stem cell-based models of the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":99045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-investment"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - 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