A research project led by Dr Assumpció Bosch has been selected for the La Caixa Foundation’s 2026 Health Research Call
The team will receive €1,000,000 to pursue new gene therapies for childhood brain disorders. The highly competitive call selected 32 projects from among 800 proposals.
In its ninth edition, the Health Research Call has selected 32 biomedicine and health research projects led by institutions in Spain and Portugal. Through this initiative, the La Caixa Foundation supports basic, clinical and translational research addressing major challenges in biomedicine and health across several areas: neuroscience, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, oncology, infectious diseases, and enabling technologies applied to any of these fields.
The project led by Dr Assumpció Bosch, from the Institute and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the UAB, aims to develop new gene therapies to restore or correct the biological function impaired in childhood brain disorders in a localised and controlled manner. Specifically, it will focus on two severe paediatric encephalopathies (MLC and GNB1) and investigate strategies to deliver therapeutic instructions to the appropriate brain cells without causing unwanted effects.
The research consortium, which includes Dr Miguel Chillón and his group—an ICREA research group also affiliated with the INc-UAB and VHIR—will test the therapeutic candidates in disease models and assess their safety, durability and distribution. The goal is to obtain two candidates ready to progress towards clinical trials and establish a platform that could contribute to the development of precision gene therapies for other childhood neurological disorders.
The project is a collaboration with CIMA and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, with support from the patient associations Fundación Gen Rebelde and Alliance MLC.