Clinical Research in Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Cognitive Disorders
This programme is devoted to the diagnosis and intervention, research and education in the field of neurodegenerative cognitive disorders and dementia. In addition, the group collaborates with pharmaceutical companies in the study of new drugs for the treatment of patients with cognitive problems (pharmacological clinical trials). The main interests are: investigations on clinical, molecular and imaging biomarkers that characterise the preclinical/predementia phases of Alzheimer disease and other neurodegenerative cognitive disorders; and investigation of biological pathways involved in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative dementias.
Principal Investigators
Raquel Sanchez-Valle
Associate professor
Albert Llado
Adjunct medical professor
Mircea Balasa
Adjunct medical professor
Technologies & Methods
- Neuropsychological testing for early cognitive changes
- Neuroimaging: structural and functional MRI
- Blood and CSF biochemical markers
- Genetic counseling and genetic testing
- Gene expression and DNA methylation
Research Team
Anna Martinez Muriana
Ramon y Cajal Researcher (Assistant Professor)
Lorena Rami
Postdoctoral Researcher
Anna Antonell
Postdoctoral Researcher
Beatriz Bosch
Postdoctoral Researcher
Laura Molina
Postdoctoral Researcher
Neus Falgàs
Postdoctoral Researcher
Adria Tort
Postdoctoral Researcher
Sergi Borrego
Postdoctoral Researcher
Agnes Perez
Postdoctoral Trainee
Nuria Montagut
Postdoctoral Trainee
Diana Esteller
Early Stage Researcher
Núria Guillén
Early Stage Researcher
Víctor Patricio
Early Stage Researcher
Paula Canasto
Early Stage Researcher
Jordi Juncà
Technician
Magda Castellví
Technician
Roger Puey
Technician
Aina Comas Albertí
Technician
Tania Collet
Technician
Active Projects
Cohorte clínica de investigación en demencias neurodegenerativas (Biomarkdem-ClínicBarcelona): marcadores multimodales diagnósticos y pronósticos
Fundació Clínic per a la Recerca Biomèdica. II040142. Raquel Sanchez-Valle.
DIAN-TU: NEXT GENERATION PREVENTION TRIAL
National Institutes of Health (NIH). 5R01AG053267-02. Raquel Sanchez-Valle.
Demencias genéticas (enfermedad de Alzheimer, demencia frontotemporal y enfermedades priónicas genéticas): cambios longitudinales y diferencias en expresión y epigenéticas con formas esporádicas.
Fundació Clínic per a la Recerca Biomèdica. DN040718. Raquel Sanchez-Valle.
Characterisation of neuronal endogenous retrovirus in dementia
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN). PCI2021-122086-2B. Raquel Sanchez-Valle.
Diagnóstico precoz de la enfermedad de Alzheimer mediante el perfil de linfocitos citotóxicos y caracterización de alteraciones del sueño.
Instituto de Salud Carlos III. AC21_2/00007. Raquel Sanchez-Valle.
Genetic counseling in European universities: The case of neurodegenerative diseases
Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). KA220-HED-F1522753. Raquel Sanchez-Valle.
Malaltia d’Alzheimer i altres trastorns cognitius
Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR). 2021 SGR 01126. Raquel Sanchez-Valle.
Urban Design for Brain and Cognitive Health: Exploring its Impact on Ageing and Dementia
Ajuntament de Barcelona. 23S06157-001. Raquel Sanchez-Valle.
DIAN-TU PRIMARY PREVENTION TRIAL
National Institutes of Health (NIH). 1U01AG059798-01. Raquel Sanchez-Valle.
Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network
National Institutes of Health (NIH). 5U19AG032438-11. Raquel Sanchez-Valle.
Selected publications
Borrego-Écija, S., Montagut, N., Martín-Trias, P., Vaqué-Alcázar, L., Illán-Gala, I., Balasa, M., Lladó, A., Casanova-Mollà, J., Bargalló, N., Valls-Solé, J., Lleó, A., Bartrés-Faz, D., & Sánchez-Valle, R. (2023). Multifocal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Primary Progressive Aphasia Does Not Provide a Clinical Benefit Over Speech Therapy. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 93(3), 1169–1180. https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-230069
Campabadal, A., Oltra, J., Junqué, C., Guillen, N., Botí, M. Á., Sala‐Llonch, R., Monté‐Rubio, G. C., Lledó, G., Bargalló, N., Rami, L., Sánchez‐Valle, R., & Segura, B. (2023). Structural brain changes in post‐acute COVID‐19 patients with persistent olfactory dysfunction. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, 10(2), 195–203. https://doi.org/10.1002/acn3.51710
Dalmau, J., Dalakas, M. C., Kolson, D. L., Paul, F., Sánchez-Valle, R., & Zamvil, S. S. (2023). N2 Year in Review. Neurology Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1212/NXI.0000000000200076
Falgàs, N., Walsh, C. M., Yack, L., Simon, A. J., Allen, I. E., Kramer, J. H., Rosen, H. J., Joie, R. La, Rabinovici, G., Miller, B., Spina, S., Seeley, W. W., Ranasinghe, K., Vossel, K., Neylan, T. C., & Grinberg, L. T. (2023). Alzheimer’s disease phenotypes show different sleep architecture. Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 19(8), 3272–3282. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12963
Forno, G., Contador, J., Pérez‐Millan, A., Guillen, N., Falgàs, N., Sarto, J., Tort‐Merino, A., Castellví, M., Bosch, B., Fernández‐Villullas, G., Balasa, M., Antonell, A., Sala‐Llonch, R., Sanchez‐Valle, R., Hornberger, M., & Lladó, A. (2023). The APOE4 effect: structural brain differences in Alzheimer’s disease according to the age at symptom onset. European Journal of Neurology, 30(3), 597–605. https://doi.org/10.1111/ene.15657
Forno, G., Saranathan, M., Contador, J., Guillen, N., Falgàs, N., Tort-Merino, A., Balasa, M., Sanchez-Valle, R., Hornberger, M., & Lladó, A. (2023). Thalamic nuclei changes in early and late onset Alzheimer’s disease. Current Research in Neurobiology, 4, 100084. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crneur.2023.100084
Guillén, N., Contador, J., Buongiorno, M., Álvarez, I., Culell, N., Alcolea, D., Lleó, A., Fortea, J., Piñol-Ripoll, G., Carnes-Vendrell, A., Lourdes Ispierto, M., Vilas, D., Puig-Pijoan, A., Fernández-Lebrero, A., Balasa, M., Sánchez-Valle, R., & Lladó, A. (2023). Agreement of cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers and amyloid-PET in a multicenter study. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-023-01701-y
Illán-Gala, I., Montal, V., Borrego-Écija, S., Mandelli, M. L., Falgàs, N., Welch, A. E., Pegueroles, J., Santos-Santos, M., Bejanin, A., Alcolea, D., Dols-Icardo, O., Belbin, O., Sánchez-Saudinós, M. B., Bargalló, N., González-Ortiz, S., Lladó, A., Blesa, R., Dickerson, B. C., Rosen, H. J., … Fortea, J. (2023). Correction: Cortical microstructure in primary progressive aphasia: a multicenter study. Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, 15(1), 29. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-023-01179-9
Pérez-Carbonell, L., Sarto, J., Gaig, C., Muñoz-Lopetegi, A., Ruiz-García, R., Naranjo, L., Augé, J. M., Perissinotti, A., Santamaria, J., Iranzo, A., & Sánchez-Valle, R. (2023). Sleep in Gerstmann-Straüssler-Scheinker disease. Sleep Medicine, 108, 11–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2023.05.010
Pérez-Millan, A., Borrego-Écija, S., van Swieten, J. C., Jiskoot, L., Moreno, F., Laforce, R., Graff, C., Masellis, M., Tartaglia, M. C., Rowe, J. B., Borroni, B., Finger, E., Synofzik, M., Galimberti, D., Vandenberghe, R., de Mendonça, A., Butler, C. R., Gerhard, A., Ducharme, S., … Borracci, V. (2023). Loss of brainstem white matter predicts onset and motor neuron symptoms in C9orf72 expansion carriers: a GENFI study. Journal of Neurology, 270(3), 1573–1586. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-022-11435-x
Pérez‐Millan, A., Contador, J., Juncà‐Parella, J., Bosch, B., Borrell, L., Tort‐Merino, A., Falgàs, N., Borrego‐Écija, S., Bargalló, N., Rami, L., Balasa, M., Lladó, A., Sánchez‐Valle, R., & Sala‐Llonch, R. (2023). Classifying Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia using machine learning with cross‐sectional and longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging data. Human Brain Mapping, 44(6), 2234–2244. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26205
Sarto, J., Ruiz-García, R., Guillén, N., Ramos-Campoy, Ó., Falgàs, N., Esteller, D., Contador, J., Fernández, G., González, Y., Tort-Merino, A., Juncà-Parella, J., Bosch, B., Borrego-Écija, S., Molina-Porcel, L., Castellví, M., Vergara, M., Antonell, A., Augé, J. M., Naranjo, L., … Balasa, M. (2023). Diagnostic Performance and Clinical Applicability of Blood-Based Biomarkers in a Prospective Memory Clinic Cohort. Neurology, 100(8). https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000201597
Schultz, S. A., Shirzadi, Z., Schultz, A. P., Liu, L., Fitzpatrick, C. D., McDade, E., Barthelemy, N. R., Renton, A., Esposito, B., Joseph‐Mathurin, N., Cruchaga, C., Chen, C. D., Goate, A., Allegri, R. F., Benzinger, T. L. S., Berman, S., Chui, H. C., Fagan, A. M., Farlow, M. R., … Chhatwal, J. P. (2023). Location of pathogenic variants in PSEN1 impacts progression of cognitive, clinical, and neurodegenerative measures in autosomal‐dominant Alzheimer’s disease. Aging Cell, 22(8). https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.13871
Shafiei, G., Bazinet, V., Dadar, M., Manera, A. L., Collins, D. L., Dagher, A., Borroni, B., Sanchez-Valle, R., Moreno, F., Laforce, R., Graff, C., Synofzik, M., Galimberti, D., Rowe, J. B., Masellis, M., Tartaglia, M. C., Finger, E., Vandenberghe, R., de Mendonça, A., … Polyakova, M. (2023). Network structure and transcriptomic vulnerability shape atrophy in frontotemporal dementia. Brain, 146(1), 321–336. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac069
Vöglein, J., Franzmeier, N., Morris, J. C., Dieterich, M., McDade, E., Simons, M., Preische, O., Hofmann, A., Hassenstab, J., Benzinger, T. L., Fagan, A., Noble, J. M., Berman, S. B., Graff‐Radford, N. R., Ghetti, B., Farlow, M. R., Chhatwal, J. P., Salloway, S., Xiong, C., … Levin, J. (2023). Pattern and implications of neurological examination findings in autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease. Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 19(2), 632–645. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.12684