The Foundation:
Agreements and collaborations
We are an assigned center of:
In 2018, we signed a signing agreement with the International University of Catalonia (UIC-Barcelona) to carry out joint actions in the field of training and research in Alzheimer's disease. This collaboration agreement has as its main objective the coordination of educational, welfare and research activities between the two entities.
Fundació ACE and the University of Pittsburgh have been collaborating for over 20 years to predict, detect and treat Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. One of the most visible projects of this important international collaboration is the biennial Barcelona – Pittsburgh Conference, which since 1998 has brought together the most distinguished researchers in the field of these neurodegenerative pathologies.
In the final quarter of 2012, Fundació ACE and CIBERNED, supported by the Institute of Health Carlos III and the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, signed a collaboration agreement to promote and develop studies, activities and research in the field of neurodegenerative diseases.
The purpose of agreement, whose duration is indefinite, is to promote and collaborate in scientific research of the problems related to neurodegenerative diseases, the development of knowledge and its integration into society. In addition, one of the priority aims of the partnership is to develop research groups at the highest international level to investigate the mechanisms of neurodegeneration.
Agreements and collaborations
CHARGE
El consorci CHARGE (cohorts for Heart and Aging in Genomic Epidemiology), dirigit per la doctora Sudha Seshadri de la Universitat de Boston, és un dels quatre grups de recerca genètica que conforma el projecte IGAP.
El consorci CHARGE, del qual Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona forma part, va arrencar la seva activitat en 2008. El seu objectiu és facilitar la meta-anàlisi i la replicació de l'estudi d'associació del genoma complet utilitzant els resultats de diversos estudis de cohorts de base poblacional clàssics com el Framingham, el projecte Rotterdam o el Cardiovascular Health Study, entre d'altres.
IGAP
Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona is also part of the International Genomics of Alzheimer’s Project (IGAP). IGAP’s main objective is to understand the role of genetic heredity in the transmission of Alzheimer’s disease.
Its research consists in drawing a map of all the genes that contribute to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease to identify the causes and the proteins involved. The IGAP genetic database has samples from more than 40,000 individuals, of whom half are healthy and the other half have Alzheimer’s disease.
A group of European and American scientists are collaborating in this international project, which is structured as four main consortia.
– The European Alzheimer’s Disease Initiative (EADI), led by Dr Philippe Amouyel of the Pasteur Institute in Lille and the University of Lille (France).
– The Alzheimer’s Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC), led by Dr Gerard Schellenberg of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (United States).
– The Genetic and Environmental Risk in Alzheimer’s Disease (GERAD) consortium, led by Dr Julie Williams of the University of Cardiff (United Kingdom).
– The neurology subgroup of Cohorts for Heart and Aging in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE), led by Dr Sudha Seshadri of the University of Boston (United States).
The findings of this research will contribute to the identification of new targets for drug development. However, IGAP’s conclusions will also be useful for taking predictive measures to determine which people are at greater risk of suffering this subtype of dementia.
DEGESCO
Fundació ACE promoted the creation of the Consorcio Español de Genética de Demencias (DEGESCO) in collaboration with 11 more groups belonging to CIBERNED (Centros de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Enfermedades Neurodegeneratives, “Centres for Networked Biomedical Research into Neurodegenerative Diseases”), to which Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona is associated. Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona also participates actively in other international initiatives, such as IGAP (International Genomics of Alzheimer’s Project) and Belgium’s Early Onset Dementia Consortium.
CHARGE
The CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging in Genomic Epidemiology) consortium, directed by Dr Sudha Seshadri of the University of Boston, is one of the four genetic research groups which make up the IGAP project.
The CHARGE consortium, of which Fundació ACE is part, launched its activities in 2008. Its objective is to the facilitate meta-analysis and replication of genome-wide association studies, using the results of various classic population-based cohort studies such as the Framingham study, the Rotterdam Project or the Cardiovascular Health Study (among others).
CRG
On 15 March 2012, a collaboration agreement was signed between Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona and the CGR in Barcelona to carry out genetic studies into dementia and ageing.
The agreement, initially to last two years, is intended to encourage collaboration between the two research centres, especially as regards specific scientific collaborations in the field of genomics and functional studies into cases of neurodegenerative diseases. The experience of the two research centres will serve to deepen understanding of these diseases from several points of view.
The agreement, whose initial duration is two years, is intended to encourage collaboration between these two research centres. Specifically, the two centres hope to collaborate on concrete projects in the field of genomics and on functional studies into cases of neurodegenerative diseases.
GAAIN
Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona is a member of the Global Alzheimer’s Association Interactive Network.
The Global Alzheimer’s Association Interactive Network (GAAIN) is a big data community for cohort discovery and data exploration that promotes data sharing among a federated, global network of data partners who are studying Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. It is a collaborative project that provides researchers around the globe access to clinical, genetic, and imaging data on Alzheimer’s disease from hundreds of thousands of subject participants through compelling and intuitive graphical user interfaces.
Led by Dr. Arthur Toga, Director of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI) at the University of Southern California, GAAIN’s goal is to transform the way researchers work together to answer fundamental questions related to understanding the causes, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. To learn more and use GAAIN, visit http://www.gaain.org.
BANG
The BANG group is a research project for research in neuroimaging and other biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases, mainly Alzheimer's Disease. It is established as a national and international reference group for the promotion, dissemination and research into new therapies and methodologies related to degenerative neuronal diseases.
One of its objectives is the creation and validation of a multidisciplinary base that includes sociodemographic, cognitive and neuropsychiatric data, genetic samples, spinal fluids, biomarkers, magnetic resonance images and PET images, as predictors of Alzheimer's disease and other diseases. related, for use in research activities. At the same time, the BANG will promote the translational research of degenerative neuronal diseases, for the direct benefit of the affected population.
On July 12, 2012, the framework agreement for collaboration in research projects was signed for the constitution of the group "BARCELONA ALZHEIMER NEUROIMATGE GRUPO - BANG". On Ace's initiative, the group is constituted by the Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona, Institut Català de Neurociències Aplicades, Research Institute of the Hospital de la Santa Creu and Sant Pau, Vall d'Hebrón Research Institute and Institute of the Hospital de Investigaciones Médicas.
