Noticias

•    La actividad está dirigida a alumnado de bachillerato de ciencias, universidad o formación profesional

Navarrabiomed oferta una visita dirigida a estudiantes de bachillerato interesados en la investigación biomédica y biotecnológica, así como a estudiantes que actualmente estén cursando grados universitarios y de formación profesional en el ámbito de la salud. La sesión tendrá lugar el jueves, 21 de noviembre a las 16:30 horas y comenzará en el salón de actos del centro (plazas limitadas).

Durante la sesión podrán conocer las salidas profesionales que existen en el ámbito de la investigación biomédica y conocerán de la mano de investigadores e investigadoras del centro las instalaciones en grupos reducidos. 

Inscripciones - Todas las personas interesadas en asistir deberán inscribirse en el siguiente formulario. 
Las plazas se asignarán por riguroso orden de inscripción. 
 

Esta actividad forma parte de las actividades que Navarrabiomed desarrolla en el marco de las Semanas de la Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Innovación 2024. 

Navarrabiomed-Fundación Miguel Servet promueve el Programa de microINTENSIFICACIONES (mINT) 2024 con el objetivo de incentivar, promover y consolidar el desarrollo de la actividad investigadora por el personal asistencial perteneciente a los organismos autónomos del Departamento de Salud del Gobierno de Navarra. 
 

Tras la finalización del plazo de presentación de alegaciones de las puntuaciones obtenidas, la Comisión de Evaluación y Seguimiento emite la adjudicación definitiva de las ayudas mINT con fecha lunes, 30 de septiembre de 2024:

• Adjudicación del Programa mINT 2024
• Relación definitiva de personas beneficiarias. 

Tomorrow, the 4th of June, is World Fertility Day, which aims to raise awareness of reproductive problems and recent progress in this field, such as the ReproNAGEN project.

The Assisted Reproduction Unit of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department at the Hospital Universitario de Navarra treats close to 1000 couples with difficulties conceiving naturally, or who have experienced repeated miscarriages, every year. Every 4th of June, World Fertility Day, which was established by the World Health Organisation, highlights the reproductive process and infertility problems experienced by 1 out of every 6 adults at some point in their life, as well as recent breakthroughs in this field, such as the ReproNAGEN project. 

Causes by sex and treatments offered

The most common causes in women are pelvic endometriosis, Fallopian tube disorders and low ovarian reserve. Moreover, the age of the women is of particular importance as it affects both the quantity and quality of her eggs. The mean age for first-time mothers is currently 32.1 years and the group women aged 35 or more years who are mothers make up 42.1% of all patients. The search to become pregnant at more advanced ages entails a high incidence of reproductive failure in terms of both natural fertility and the use of assisted-reproduction techniques. 

With regard to causes in men, changes to semen quality affect the optimal levels of sperm concentration, as well as their motility and/or morphology. There may also be mixed causes in both sexes. 

Jesús Zabaleta, head of the Assisted Reproduction Unit at the HUN, offers a summary of the activities carried out by the Unit: “Of the 1000 couples that we treat, around 600 undergo different reproduction treatments each year and half of these manage to become pregnant” 
The most common treatment options to reverse the sterility detected include surgery, stimulation of ovulation, artificial insemination and in vitro fertilisation (IVF). In 2023, IVF processes were performed in 62% of cases attended at the HUN and artificial insemination techniques in 48%. 
 

Genome sequencing in fertility 

Navarra is the only Autonomous Community to offer genome sequencing in the field of assisted reproduction, via the strategic ReproNAGEN project. The biomedical research centre Navarrabiomed, in collaboration with the HUN, has been leading this initiative since 2022, with the aim of diagnosing the genetic causes of reproductive failure in highly complex patients by way of whole family genome sequencing. Specifically, couples with recurring implantation failure, patients with repeated miscarriages, and those with poor embryo quality. In addition to genome sequencing, the Unit offers preconception screening and a pharmacogenetic study to ensure a personalised clinical approach in all cases.

“A total of 90 couples have participated in the study to date and the reproductive problems have been overcome in 20% of them, with 18 pregnancies”, notes Jesús Zabaleta, who is also the Principal Investigator for the project. ReproNAGEN expects to include a further 50 couples before December, when the study will finish, and the results obtained will be analysed to evaluate their transfer into clinical practice. 

The ReproNAGEN is funded by the Department of Industry and Ecological and Digital Business Transition of the Regional Government of Navarra, via the call for proposals for strategic R&D projects that promote high-impact initiatives aligned with the sectors identified in Navarra’s Smart Specialisation Strategy (S4).

• This is the NAGENdata initiative, financed by the Government of Navarra, which will allow the SNS-O to promote personalized and precision medicine in Navarra

The Navarrabiomed biomedical research centre leads the implementation of the NAGENdata project, which aims to develop an infrastructure for sharing genomic data associated with the Navarra Genome Program (NAGEN Program) under criteria of privacy, security, sustainability and circular economy. This initiative in personalized medicine, financed by the Government of Navarra, will also contribute to promoting the health of citizens and promoting health research with a gender dimension.

During its three years, a total of more than 40 professionals with multidisciplinary profiles and links to seven entities will participate: Hospital Universitario de Navarra (HUN), Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA), ADItech (coordinator of the R&D&I system in Navarra), the public company NASERTIC, the companies Ysium Medical and Data Value Management, and Navarrabiomed - Fundación Miguel Servet as project leader. The latter will coordinate the participation of professionals from the Genomic Medicine Unit and Biobank at Navarrabiomed and the teams involved from the Medical Genetics, Neurology and Anatomical Pathology Departments at the HUN.

NAGENdata will create a specialized infrastructure that will allow healthcare and research professionals to remotely access and interact with anonymised genomic and clinical data, and will allow connections to similar national and international repositories. In addition, it is expected that the infrastructure will host tools that would allow connection from the SNS-O in the future, thus promoting the reuse of these data for healthcare purposes. The project will also be available to the general public, since they will be able to access a simplified version of the general data contained on the platform. All this within a framework of compliance with the law and guarantee of patient privacy.

Data associated with the NAGEN program 

NAGENdata follows the guidelines of the new European Health Data Space (EHDS) of the European Commission and the Comprehensive Personalized Medicine Strategy of the Government of Navarra, which recognize the reuse of genomic data as an essential tool for producing value-added results for healthcare, research and economic development from translational research projects. 

Navarrabiomed has been developing the NAGEN Program since 2016, and it is also funded by previous calls for the GEMA challenge, which has aimed to implement the use of highly complex genomic sequencing in the SNS-O. Specifically, the program has resulted in six strategic projects that have collected nearly 3000 patient genomes and exomes, clinically interpreted together with their associated clinical and phenotypic descriptors in different health scenarios: diagnosis of rare diseases (NAGEN1000), pharmacogenetics (PharmaNAGEN), complex common disease (NAGENCOL), acute and emergency healthcare in paediatrics (NAGENpediatrics), personalised prevention and population health (NAGEN-Mx), and infertility and reproductive medicine (ReproNAGEN). 

These projects have allowed the development and consolidation of methodologies, processes and infrastructure necessary for the development of cutting-edge technology in Navarra and have provided necessary clinical evidence on the multiple uses of genomic medicine in the SNS-O. All of this has allowed Navarra to become an example of regional development in personalized medicine at the European level. 

Virginia García Solaesa, specialist in the Medical Genetics Department at the Hospital Universitario de Navarra, is part of the Genomic Medicine Unit at Navarrabiomed – Miguel Servet Foundation as Principal Investigator of NAGENdata and coordinator of the project consortium. García stresses the added value provided by this collection of data: “Thanks to the professionals involved, the Government of Navarra and the collaboration of the people who have participated in previous NAGENs, we have a collection of data of great scientific value. It is time to make it available to the scientific community and to the patients themselves, to the general public, with all the guarantees regarding their privacy and security; so that it can give back to the system and lead to the development and optimization of new therapies and drugs.” 

NAGENdata is part of the call for grants to carry out Strategic R&D Projects in the field of personalized medicine of the Government of Navarra 2023 from the the Department of Industry and Ecological and Business Digital Transition of the Government of Navarra, as part of the GEMA VII challenge, and has received a contribution from the Government of Navarra of 830,813 euros.  
 

Bernardo Abel Cedeño Veloz, a predoctoral researcher from the Geriatrics and Active Ageing Unit (INGEA) at Navarrabiomed-IdiSNA and specialist in Geriatrics at the Hospital Universitario de Navarra, will defend his thesis from the Universidad Pública de Navarra on Tuesday, 16th April at 11:00 h, in the conference room at Navarrabiomed.

The doctoral work, entitled “A translational approach to the secondary prevention of hip fracture in the elderly: from basic science to clinical practice", has been carried out at Navarrabiomed and at the Hospital Universitario de Navarra, under the supervision of Drs. Mikel Izquiero Redín, Principal Investigator of the Physical Exercise, Health and Quality of Life Unit (E-FIT) at Navarrabiomed and Nicolás Martínez Velilla, Principal Investigator of the Geriatrics and Active Ageing Unit (INGEA). In addition, this project has also been possible thanks to support from the Scientific/Technical Proteomics Department and Biobank at Navarrabiomed.

The doctoral thesis focuses on the relationship between scientific discoveries in bone health, its management and its application in the prevention of fractures in the elderly, highlighting the importance of biomarkers and telerehabilitation as tools to address this public health problem.

Details of the research 

As part of his doctoral thesis, Bernardo Abel Cedeño has studied various aspects. With regard to the prevention of hip fractures using antiresorptives, it is concluded that this treatment in elderly patients with osteoporosis has limited benefits, thus highlighting the need for a multifactorial approach in the prevention of hip fractures. Furthermore, the continued importance of biomarkers in osteoporosis is also highlighted, thus suggesting that the development of new biomarkers could revolutionize the treatment of the disease. Through biomarker blood testing, immunological biomarkers related to fracture risk, which could aid in clinical decision-making and fracture prevention in the elderly, have been identified. In the follow-up of the previously mentioned patients, frailty-related serum biomarkers that predict adverse outcomes in patients with hip fracture were found, thus offering a potential clinical tool and opening up new avenues of research. Finally, a multicomponent intervention with telerehabilitation is proposed to improve functional capacity in patients with hip fracture, which could change the care of these fractures in the future.

The research has been published in five publications in high-impact international journals (Q1–Q2). It has also been presented at several international conferences. As a result of one of these studies presented at a conference, he received the award for best young researcher at the International Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases, in Barcelona 2023.
 

The biologist Pablo Iturbe is awarded a doctorate at UPNA with research published in the journal “Nature Microbiology” that opens avenues to develop strategies that allow the resistance of bacteria to destruction by viruses to be overcome

Research carried out at the Microbial Pathogenesis Unit at Navarrabiomed, a joint biomedical research centre of the Gobierno de Navarra and the Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA), has discovered the way in which the virus that infects the pathogenic bacteria Staphylococcus aureus organizes a type of gene in its genome to achieve a complex balance, namely to protect the bacteria and the host, from infection by other viruses, to prevent it from being destroyed (immunity) and to prevent this same defence mechanism from interfering with the activity of the virus and eliminating it (autoimmunity). 

Given that there are strains of this bacteria that are multi-resistant to antibiotic treatment, a strategy to combat it consists in the use of phage therapy, which uses viruses, called phages, to infect and eliminate it. The understanding generated in this work may contribute to the development of strategies that allow us to overcome the resistance that bacteria present to destruction by viruses. This study, which is the result of the doctoral thesis defended at the UPNA by the biologist Pablo Iturbe Sanz (Madrid, 1994), has been published in the scientific journal “Nature Microbiology”.

According to Iturbe, S. aureus is a “tremendously versatile” pathogenic bacteria that is capable of producing very diverse infections ranging from pneumonia, abscesses, osteomyelitis (infection of the bone) or endocarditis (inflammation of the inner layer of the heart) to infections of all types of implants and prostheses. Furthermore, as there are strains that are multi-resistant to antibiotic treatment, the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified it as “one of the priority bacteria for the development of new antibiotics.”

S. aureus can be infected by specific viruses called bacteriophages, or phages, which attach to it. This relationship is considered to be parasitic as the phage takes advantage of the bacteria and uses its resources to reproduce. This can eventually lead to bacterial death when new phages are released and disrupt the bacterial cell.

However, some phages have the ability to protect the bacteria from infections by other viruses, which is known as immunity, in a kind of symbiotic relationship in which the phage and the bacteria coexist. This is beneficial for the resident phage, as it ensures that it has no competition for the bacteria's resources. For this coexistence to work, the system must be balanced in order to also allow the resident phage to survive (autoimmunity) without being eliminated by the bacteria's own defence mechanisms.

Defence mechanism against viruses

Iturbe’s research has shown that S. aureus uses the architecture of non-contiguous operons to ensure that the defence mechanism against other viruses is completely turned off and does not act against itself when the resident virus begins to multiply to colonize other bacteria. Operons are groups of genes that are found together in DNA, while in the case of non-contiguous operons, the genes are not located next to each other in the genome, but can be turned on or off together in response to certain signals or conditions, despite their physical separation. These genes perform fundamental roles in the biology of the bacteria and the virus.

This work, which has been carried out in collaboration with the research group of Professor José R. Penadés at Imperial College London (United Kingdom), arises from previous studies developed by the Microbial Pathogenesis Unit at Navarrabiomed, led by the UPNA professor Íñigo Lasa Uzcudun, which described the existence of a new transcription unit, known as the non-contiguous operon, was described.
In addition to being published in the journal “Nature Microbiology”, the results of the doctoral thesis have been collected in another scientific publication “microLife” and have been disseminated at the international microbiology conference The New Microbiology, organized by the European Molecular Biology Organisation.

Brief curriculum

Before being awarded his doctorate by the UPNA, Pablo Iturbe gained a degree in biology (specialising in biotechnology) at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where he participated in a research project in the Department of Genetics, in the Plant Biotechnology group, concerning the study of rice retrotransposons. Later, he completed a Master’s Degree in Integrative Cellular and Molecular Biology at the Universidad Menéndez Pelayo and worked for two years in the Environmental Microbiology group, collaborating in a European project focused on the revaluation of industrial waste compounds using genetically modified bacteria.

While studying for his doctoral thesis at the UPNA, which was carried out at Navarrabiomed under the supervision of Iñigo Lasa, Pablo Iturbe has received an FPI scholarship obtained through the 2017 call for grants for R&D&i projects from the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness. The thesis forms part of the scientific activity of the Healthcare Research Institute of Navarra (IdiSNA).
 

• www.unavarra.es 

• The project, which also involves researchers from Navarrabiomed and IdiSNA, will be carried out in collaboration with hospitals from a further three autonomous communities.

Researchers from the Hospital Universitario de Navarra (HUN) will coordinate a transversal, multicentre study of early-onset gastrointestinal cancer, considered to be that diagnosed in young patients (less than 50 years of age), in whom the incidence of this type of cancer has increased alarmingly over the past few decades. 

Gastrointestinal cancer included, amongst others, colorectal, gastric and pancreatic tumours, which in Spain are the second, fourth and seventh leading causes of cancer-related death, respectively. In Navarra, colorectal cancer was the second most common tumour last year in both males and females, according to data released this week by the Cancer registry of the Institute for Public and Occupational Health of Navarra (ISPLN) on the world day for that disease, which is held next Sunday (4th February).

The project has been funded via the IdiSNA as part of the R&D&i 2023 call for proposals from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III aimed at healthcare research projects and is headed by the researcher Maria Alsina, a specialist in the Medical Oncology department at the HUN and head of the Translational Medical Oncology Unit at Navarrabiomed, where she is funded by the intensification program set up by the Fundación “la Caixa”, and member of the Oncobiona group at IdiSNA. 

Researchers from Navarrabiomed and IdiSNA are also participating in the study, which is carried out in cooperation with the different departments at the HUN involved in the management of gastrointestinal cancer, namely Anatomical Pathology, Surgery, Digestive, Endocrinology and Nutrition, Radiation Oncology and Radiology. Three healthcare centres from neighbouring autonomous communities, namely the Hospital Universitario Donostia, Hospital Miguel Servet (Zaragoza) and Hospital San Pedro (Logroño), are also collaborating with the study. 

The main objective of the study is to identify the differentiating characteristics of early-onset gastrointestinal cancer in comparison with the later-onset type, both overall, combining the three types of tumours, and for each one separately. To that end, a global approach that includes parameters concerning both the patient’s environment and the disease itself, will be applied. Thus, demographic and clinical variables and others related to their lifestyle, as well as histopathological data for the tumour, will be collected for each patient included in the study. 

Sample of 240 patients in a limited geographical setting

It is expected that up to 240 patients (80 younger than 50 years and 160 who have developed this disease at an older age) will participate in the study. The geographical setting for the sample is the north of Spain, therefore the collaboration of the aforementioned hospitals is required. The heads of the research consider that the availability of real-life data for patients diagnosed in a limited setting may help to better understand this type of cancer in our environment and allow prevention strategies to be developed, especially as regards healthy lifestyle habits. In this sense, it should be noted that the majority of cases of early-onset gastrointestinal cancer occur due to environmental, lifestyle and behavioural, nutritional and biological factors rather than being hereditary.

In addition to the preventive approach, a more in-depth understanding of the onset of tumours in young patients may also help the diagnostic and therapeutic approach in this population group. The availability of data that allow an early diagnosis will increase the probability of effective curative treatments and reduce the impact of the disease on the life of these patients (educational or work activities, responsibilities for children or family members) and increase their potential longevity.

In addition, young patients with digestive tumours face unique challenges and needs, such as possible effects on their body image after aggressive surgery, or potential long-term side-effects of chemo- and radiotherapy treatments on their cardiovascular, sexual and reproductive health, in addition to the possible influence on the onset of new neoplasms.
 

• This initiative, funded by the Regional Government of Navarra, will use artificial intelligence, machine learning and nanotechnology to develop diagnostic biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases. 

The strategic INNOLFACT 2.0 project, awarded 1.6 million euros by the Government of Navarra, is the continuation of INNOLFACT, which finished in 2022. The goal of this second phase is to develop innovations in the early diagnosis and classification of patients from the Geriatric and Neurology Services, and to develop new therapies tat modulate the immune system in the brain to improve cognitive and motor function. Specifically, the aim is to make progress in the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases, identify biomarkers indicative of progression of the disease, allow sensory training, and to develop intranasal therapies targeting the central nervous system. This approach consolidates and implements Olfactory Precision Medicine in Navarra, thus making us pioneers in generating innovation via smell.

 
Multidisciplinary consortium

INNOLFACT 2.0 is headed by Enrique Santamaría, principal investigator of the Clinical Neuroproteomics Unit at Navarrabiomed, and Ana María García-Osta, co-PI of the project and investigator in the Neurological Disease Gene Therapy Program at the Cima Universidad de Navarra. The project has a team of the very highest level comprising multidisciplinary clinical R&D&I profiles from the Hospital Universitario de Navarra and the Clínica Universidad de Navarra, the Navarrabiomed research centres and Cima at the Universidad de Navarra: experts in geriatrics, otorhinolaryngology, neurology and neurobiology, immunology, engineering, nanotechnology, biochemistry, proteomics, bioinformatics, data analysis, algorithm development and artificial intelligence. 

The INNOLFACT 2.0 team is also boosted by the participation of two companies from Navarra. These companies NNBi will promote the development of predictive algorithms and digitalisation of the healthcare setting, thereby improving the diagnostic capacity and follow-up of neurodegenerative diseases and ageing. They will alsoEversens  help with the identification of biomarkers correlated with the different stages of cognitive impairment in patients by developing medical devices that allow non-invasive monitoring. 

Finally, the project consortium is completed with the participation of ADItech, coordinator of the SINAI, which leads the “Investigation from a gender perspective” to contribute to the scientific excellence of R&D&I agents and position Navarra at the forefront internationally.

Challenges faced by INNOLFACT 2.0

Clinical, research and digitalisation tools that allow precision medicine, and the technological progress associated with this sector in Navarra are all required to overcome the human and economic challenges raised by ageing and neurodegenerative diseases. Traditionally, the sense of smell is considered to be less relevant than sight or hearing. However, our findings in the context of the INNOLFACT project show a direct link between the immunomodulatory capacity of the olfactory system and the impact thereof on cognitive and, possibly, motor functions. The treatment of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease requires the active compounds administered to reach the brain. 

However, drug administration presents a series of obstacles, the main one being passage through the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which protects the brain against the entry of foreign substances. This protection means that the BBB is essentially impermeable to almost all drugs administered systemically, thus preventing them from reaching an effective concentration in the brain to exert their action. In this context, intranasal administration appears to be a promising alternative given its more direct access to the brain, thus making it faster and, in turn, safer, as a lower dose can be used. This factor has generated, and continues to generate, growing interest in inhaler-based treatments.  

The INNOLFACT 2.0 project aims to introduce innovations in early diagnosis by using smell and the immune system. In addition, it also aims to classify patients in the Geriatric and Neurology departments to develop new therapies that modulate the immune system at a brain level. This will be carried out using artificial intelligence, machine learning and nanotechnology as the central aspect. Taking advantage of the knowledge and state-of-the-art developments provided by the different partners, the aim is to provide a range of olfacto-immunological analyses that allow a personalised approach to ageing and neurodegenerative diseases. 

The project intends to apply cutting-edge methods and technologies, especially the databases available (data collected by both HUN and CUN) from patients who participated in the INNOLFACT study over the period 2020–2022 to identify new diagnostic biomarkers. A more exhaustive study of immune cells and molecules will be carried out, exploring their role in the cognitive process. Moreover, efficacy tests will be carried out for drugs in animal models of neurodegeneration (males and females) established in the previous project. In this sense, the neurocognitive and biological response to stimulation of the sense of smell in participants aged over 65 years with different degrees of cognitive impairment and frailty will be studied. 

At a social level, INNOLFACT 2.0 is supported by the Asociación Navarra de Parkinson [Parkinson’s Association of Navarra] (ANAPAR), the Asociación de Familiares de Enfermos de Alzheimer de Navarra [Association of Families of Alzheimer’s patients of Navarra] (AFAN), Confederación Española de Alzheimer [Spanish Alzheimer’s Confederation] (CEAFA), Federación Española de Parkinson [Spanish Parkinson’s federation] (FEP), Federación de Asociaciones de Personas con Discapacidad Física y Orgánica [Federation of Persons with Physical and Organic Disability] (COCEMFE Navarra), Sociedad Española de Geriatría y Gerontología [Spanish Society for Geriatrics and Gerontology] (SEGG), Red Olfativa Española [Spanish Olfactory Network] (ROE), and support from the following companies: CINFA, 3P Biopharmaceuticals and Ojer Pharma.
 

•    The PreDisc initiative will be implemented within the framework of the Interreg Sudoe cooperation programme and will be coordinated by Navarrabiomed

The biomedical research centre Navarrabiomed will coordinate the implementation of the PreDisc project, a health care model for the elderly aimed at improving their quality of life, by prescribing a personalised physical activity programme to be followed by patients during their stay in hospital, incorporating the continuation of the same in Primary Care by developing an innovative eHealth tool. 

In addition to preventing hospital disability of patients, PreDisc will promote access to new healthcare technologies for elderly people living in rural areas and will help shorten their stays in hospital and adapt healthcare resources. This initiative, which is part of the Interreg Sudoe cooperation programme (2021-2027), will be coordinated by Navarrabiomed and will involve professionals from 16 institutions in Navarra, the Basque Country, France, Andorra and Portugal. 

Nicolás Martínez Velilla, principal investigator of the Geriatrics Unit of Navarrabiomed, head of the Geriatrics Service of the University Hospital of Navarra (HUN) and head of the project explains that the project "aims to modify the traditional care model for elderly people in hospital, prioritising functional recovery, through an individualised training programme. The current model focuses on the disease and not so much on the patient, so this new model will improve the patient's functional capacities by following an individualised multi-component training programme that not only shortens the hospital stay but also avoids the disability that often arises during stays in hospital.

 
Towards a new care model for the elderly

PreDisc includes a multi-centre clinical trial that will show the benefits of a training programme during a stay in hospital. In addition, the continuation of the programme and the transition to Primary Care will be facilitated by optimising communication between professionals and implementing innovative eHealth technology. 

The active ageing model will also be promoted in rural environments and equal access to healthcare will be encouraged by guiding coordination between professionals, facilitated by the use of technological tools, avoiding unnecessary journeys and admissions. 
PreDisc has a total budget of 1,288,550 euros, 75% co-financed by the Interreg Sudoe Programme, which supports regional development in Southwest Europe by helping to promote transnational projects through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This programme promotes cooperation to solve problems common to the Southwest Europe region.

The project consortium is led by the biomedical research centre Navarrabiomed - Fundación Miguel Servet and includes the Fundación  Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Navarra (IdiSNA), Atención Primaria del Servicio Navarro de Salud - Osasunbidea (SNS-O), Universidad de Deusto (Bizkaia, Basque Country), Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse Pôle Gériatrie (Occitania), Hospital Distrital da Figueira da Foz, EPE (Coimbra, Centre Region) and Servei Andorrà d'Atenció Sanitària (Andorra), supported by 9 public and private organisations from Southwest Europe participating as associate entities.