Two UAB projects selected in the ”la Caixa” Foundation’s Health Research Call 2026
A project led by Assumpció Bosch, from the Institut de Neurociències, will seek new gene therapies for childhood brain disorders, while Sergi Ballespí, from the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, will lead a project to improve daily interactions between caregivers and children.
Through its Health Research Call—now in its ninth edition—the ”la Caixa” Foundation has selected 32 biomedicine and health projects led by centres in Spain and Portugal. The initiative supports basic, clinical, and translational research addressing major challenges in biomedicine and health across several fields: neurosciences, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, oncology, infectious diseases, and enabling technologies for any of these areas. Two of these projects are led by researchers from the UAB.
The project coordinated by lecturer Assumpció Bosch, a researcher at the Institut de Neurociències of the UAB (INc-UAB), aims to develop new gene therapies to restore or correct the affected biological function in childhood brain disorders in a localised and controlled manner. Specifically, it will focus on two severe paediatric encephalopathies and will study strategies to deliver the therapeutic instructions to the appropriate brain cells without causing unwanted effects.
The research team—which includes lecturer Miguel Chillón and his group, also from the INc-UAB and the VHIR—will test the therapeutic candidates in disease models and evaluate their safety, durability, and distribution. The goal is to obtain two candidates ready to advance toward clinical development and to establish a platform that can contribute to the development of precision gene therapies for other paediatric neurological disorders.
The project, funded with one million euros, is a collaboration with CIMA, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, Fundación Gen Rebelde, and Alliance MLC.
Meanwhile, lecturer Sergi Ballespí, from the UAB Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, will investigate support for caregivers as a means to improve children’s mental health. Children with emerging emotional or behavioural difficulties may face challenges at school, in their relationships, and in their daily lives—particularly when their families are under chronic stress. Many existing parenting programmes are intensive and difficult to scale, and support often arrives only after problems have already worsened. The project, which has secured €249,149 in funding, aims to test a brief, practical intervention that can reach families through community services before the need for specialised mental health care arises.
The intervention focuses on preventing further deterioration by improving the daily interactions between caregivers and children. Researchers will evaluate over time its effects on the children's daily functioning, their emotional and behavioural difficulties, caregivers' stress and quality of life.
The preventive approach of this project is particularly relevant for children exposed to socioeconomic adversities, who face greater risks and often have less access to early support. The results could provide the necessary evidence to develop a scalable front-line model that reduces inequalities and helps prevent difficulties from worsening.
The call for proposals is being carried out in collaboration with the Fundación Luzón—with which the ”la Caixa” Foundation maintains a partnership to co-finance a project on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)—and with the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), a public body linked to Portugal’s Ministry for Education, Science, and Innovation, which is funding three of the nine Portuguese projects selected in this edition.
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