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“Explainable” AI cracks secret language of sticky proteins

The new AI is able to predict when and why protein aggregation occurs, a mechanism linked to Alzheimer’s and 50 other diseases that affect 500 million people. The results show great potential for research into neurodegenerative diseases and for improving drug production, reducing costs and increasing efficiency. The study, published today in Science Avances, is the result of a collaboration between the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC).

Benedetta Bolognesi awarded a prestigious European ERC Consolidator Grant

The researcher at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant. This prestigious European funding supports excellent scientists and scholars who are consolidating their independent research teams to pursue their most promising scientific ideas. The €2 million grant over 5 years will allow Bolognesi and her team to develop a new method for identifying mutations that lead to the formation of amyloids—aggregates of proteins that contribute to a variety of diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

A blood-brain barrier on a chip to study drugs against Alzheimer’s

A study led by the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) describes the development of an organ-on-a-chip that mimics the human blood-brain barrier. With this system, researchers can study the barrier permeability to different drugs and screen the most effective ones, avoiding animal tests. The device could also incorporate cells from patients to make a personalized study of the disease.

Benedetta Bolognesi and Ben Lehner win competitive funding to join forces against neurodegenerative diseases 

The “la Caixa” Foundation will fund a large and innovative research project co-led by IBEC Junior Group Leader Benedetta Bolognesi and by ICREA research professor Ben Lehner at CRG, which aims to gain a better understanding of the genetic causes leading to neurodegenerative diseases. Researchers will combine deep mutagenesis and machine learning techniques to produce a “map of dementia” as a method to predict whether a person is more susceptible to suffer these diseases.