IDIBAPS, Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer

The group studies the neuronal circuits implicated in the physiopathology and treatment of depression and schizophrenia. Special emphasis is placed on the prefrontal cortex and anatomically and functionally related areas. It also explored chemical neurotransmission processes and physiology in animal models of mental disease, with a view to identifying new therapeutic targets.

The group carries out studies on cytotoxicity, oxidative stress, synaptic functions and proteomics, for the determination of altered targets in toxicity and aging processes of the central nervous system. It also focuses on neuroprotective strategies and the development of in vitro methods for predicting neurotoxicity.

This group centers its efforts on the description of mechanisms implicated in the regulation of neuronal proliferation. Specifically, it studies the molecules opposing proliferation induced by the Sonic Hedgehog oncogene in cerebellar granular cells.

The group studies neurotransmission and its anatomical, cellular and molecular aspects implicated in neurodegenerative disorders with an inflammatory component. The objective is to identify and characterize new targets for therapeutic action.

It has been suggested that glial activation plays an important role in the development of many neurodegenerative disorders. Glial activation is an inflammation-type process that takes place in the presence of neuron damage, and implies morphological changes as well as changes in the expression of different molecules in both astrocytes and microglial cells. It is still not clear whether glial activation is a consequence of neuron degradation or a phenomenon that precedes such degradation.

The principal objective is to obtain information allowing the development of new strategies capable of contributing to the prevention of neurodegenerative processes characterized by chronic glial activation, based on adequate animal and cellular models. We are exploring the implication of certain transcription factors(C/EBPs and NF-κB) and other proteins (CD200, CD200R, TREM) in the glial activation process and in the associated neurotoxicity. Our hypothesis is that modulation of the function of these proteins may constitute a therapeutic target in relation to the neuroinflammation and neuron damage observed in neurodegenerative diseases.

We conduct in vitro and in vivo studies using experimental animals, primary cell cultures (mixed glial cultures, cultures enriched with microglia, astrocytes or neurons, mixed neuron-glia cultures) and cell lines. We are specialized in histological, cytological and molecular and cellular biology techniques.