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Dr. Mercè Boada, recognized with Alzheimer's award from the Spanish Neurology Society

On September 24, Dr. Mercè Boada, co-founder and chief medical officer of Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona, was recognized with the Alzheimer's prize by the Spanish Society of Neurology for her contribution and scientific and social leadership in the field of Alzheimer's disease. These awards are granted by the Board of Directors at the proposal of the Study Groups of the SEN and the members of the SEN.

During the delivery of the awards, held during the institutional act of the SEN 2021, Dr. Mercè Boada thanked the recognition and highlighted that “it is a source of pride and motivation to continue working to make Alzheimer's history. Research is the only way to make it possible”. In addition, Dr. Boada has wanted to extend the recognition to the entire Ace team that works day by day with this objective, especially to Mr. Lluís Tárraga, with whom she founded the entity and with whom she has directed it until the last year, in who have entrusted the general direction to Miren Gurrutxaga.

A life dedicated to Alzheimer’s research

With a career of more than 30 years dedicated to Alzheimer's, Dr. Boada leads and participates in some of the main research projects on this dementia at the European level and has been recognized with distinctions such as the Creu de Sant Jordi, the Josep Trueta medal for health merit or the Award for Professional Excellence from the College of Physicians of Catalonia. In addition, the neurologist is the only Spanish member of the executive committee of the European Alzheimer's Disease Consortium (EADC) and leader of the entity's research group included in the Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases Network (CIBERNED) as a member.

Together with the psychologist Lluís Tárraga, in 1995 she founded Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona, an institution that has already discovered, among others, 13 new genes related to Alzheimer's disease through the GR@ACE project, and has identified the psychological symptoms that best predict the onset of dementia; and, from different studies, the relationship between Covid-19 and the development of cognitive and neuropsychiatric problems has been demonstrated.