The University of Barcelona is strengthening its position at the forefront of European research thanks to the strategic project “VISI-ON-BRAIN: Cutting-edge human in vitro and in silico biomedical tools for brain diseases”. This is a training and research program involving 15 postdoctoral researchers focused on developing a new generation of human models to advance research into complex brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease. An important aspect of this effort is that research moves away from animal models and into experimental (in vitro) and calculations (in silico) model.
Professor Josep M. Canals of the UB School of Medicine and Health Sciences is leading the project. The project is part of the Horizon Europe program and has received funding of 4.5 million euros under Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Networks (MSCA-DN). Canals is a member of the UB Neuroscience Institute (UBneuro) and director of the Center for Production and Validation of Advanced Therapies (Creatio), also located at UB.
Neuroscience: A new ethical model for studying human biology
The field of biomedical research and development is undergoing a transformation toward promoting scientific innovation that does not involve laboratory animals and science that is more ethical and effective for humans. In Europe, this includes an EC roadmap to phase out animal testing, as well as a call from the European Parliament to accelerate the transition with clearer targets and timetables. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has outlined plans to reduce animal testing in preclinical safety research and expand new approaches methods (NAM) to include advanced computational and advanced computational systems. in vitro method.
Neuroscience makes this transition mission critical. The development of therapeutics to address neurodegeneration has experienced extremely high failure rates, highlighting the need to establish models that better reflect human biology and disease progression. The EU’s most ambitious competition drive, through the ‘Choose Europe for Life Sciences’ strategy and the European Biotechnology Act, will strengthen this guideline by moving results from the laboratory to market, fostering the adoption of innovation and accelerating the real-world impact of research.
VISI-ON-BRAIN is designed to fill the translational gap by building an integrated chain of predictive, reproducible, and clinically established experimental and computational tools while training researchers to work at the interface of biology, data, engineering, and regulatory relevance.
VISI-ON-BRAIN: Pan-European, cross-disciplinary training and research platform
The program brings together 15 academic, clinical and industrial partners from eight European countries and is structured to enable doctoral researchers to combine laboratory innovation with advanced modeling, analysis and translational validation. This project is coordinated by UB through Creatio. The beneficiary consortium includes the Danish Institute of Technology (Denmark), Princess Máxima Pediatric Oncology Center (Netherlands), University of Tübingen (Germany), Lund University (Sweden), Cardiff University and King’s College London (United Kingdom), National Research Council (Italy), Starlab Barcelona SL (Spain) and FRESCI (Spain). Associate members include the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy), Utrecht University (Netherlands), Verigraft (Sweden), San Raffaele Hospital SRL (Italy) and the European Commission Joint Research Center (JRC) (Italy).
Why is this important? More data to better evidence
Brain disorders are a major global health challenge and pose a significant social and economic burden. VISI-ON-BRAIN accelerates the development of decision-making tools related to patient care, enabling more go-no-go decisions, risk avoidance, and increased efficiency in discovery and treatment development. More than science, this is an investment in our workforce and competitiveness. The goal is to develop postdoctoral fellows who can move easily between academia, clinical research, and industry, and who can support NAM in aligning with ever-evolving expectations from promising methods to validated practices.
In this context, UB is promoting scientific innovations that do not involve laboratory animals and science that is more ethical and effective for humans with the creation of the Alternatives to Animal Testing Hub, coordinated by Professor Josep M. Canals.
VISI-ON-BRAIN receives funding from the European Union under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement N. 101227124. However, the views and opinions expressed are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the licensing authorities can be held responsible for them.
