Cerebro e Inflamación: Diferentes Vías, un Mismo Destino

Jose A. Muñoz-Moreno, PhD (he/his) is clinical and health psychologist at the Infectious Diseases Department of the Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol and an associate professor at the Psychology and Education Sciences Faculty of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC).

José earned his PhD in Neurosciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). He leads he “Brain Function, Emotion, and Behaviour” research group at the Fundació Lluita contra la SIDA (FLS). His main focus is on the study of neurocognitive and emotional disorders in infectious diseases, particularly HIV and, recently, COVID-19 infections.

Maite Garolera Freixa holds a PhD in Psychology (University of Barcelona, UB), is a specialist in Clinical Psychology, an expert in Neuropsychology, and has completed a Master’s in E-health (La Salle-URL), a Master’s in Health Institution Management (Autonomous University of Barcelona, UAB), a Master’s in Methods and Techniques for Data Analysis in Health Sciences (UB), and a Postgraduate Degree in Epidemiology for Managers (Johns Hopkins University). She completed a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States.

Since 1994, she has led the Neuropsychology Unit at the Terrassa University Hospital—Terrassa Health Consortium. Since 2008, she has also been the director of the Brain, Cognition, and Behavior Research Group (C3) at the same hospital. She is a professor at the International University of Catalonia (UIC) and the president of the Catalan Society of Specialists in Clinical Psychology (SCEPC).

Her research focuses on neuropsychological assessment and the benefits of cognitive interventions in various clinical conditions. She has supervised 12 doctoral theses, published over 80 scientific articles in high-impact journals, and in the past decade has participated in and led more than 20 competitive national and international projects.

Medical Director of ACE Alzheimer Center Barcelona.
Principal Investigator for CIBERNED in Neurodegenerative Diseases.
Distinguished Professor at the International University of Catalonia.

• Neurologist and Doctor of Medicine from the University of Barcelona.
• Founder and Medical Director of ACE Alzheimer Center Barcelona.
• Tenured Professor accredited by AQU (Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency).
• Distinguished Professor at the International University of Catalonia.
• Member of the Executive Committee of the EADC (European Alzheimer’s Disease Consortium).
• Principal Investigator for CIBERNED in neurodegenerative diseases.
• Clinical Chief and Head of the Alzheimer’s Research Area at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, Department of Neurology, and Vall d’Hebron Research Institute.

Eduard Vieta is Professor of Psychiatry and Chair at the University of Barcelona and Head of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at the Hospital Clinic, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Over the past 7 years, Dr. Vieta has also served as Scientific Director of the Spanish Research Network on Mental Health (CIBERSAM). He has received the Aristotle award (2005), the Mogens Schou award (2007), the Strategic Research award of the Spanish Society of Biological Psychiatry (2009), the Official College of Physicians award to Professional Excellence (2011), the Colvin Price on Outstanding Achievement in Mood Disorders Research by the Brain and Behaviour Research Foundation (2012), the Clinical Neuroscience Lilly award by the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP 2014), the Simon Bolivar Award (American Psychiatric Association 2017) the Research Price of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP, 2017),  the Trueta Prize (2021), the University of Barcelona award on scientific dissemination and humanities (2022), and the Maimonides award from the University of Cordoba. Moreover, he has been named best psychiatrist in Spain (Monitor sanitario, El Español), Admirable (Diario Médico), honorary member of the Spanish Society of Biological Psychiatry, and Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Valencia. Since 2022, he has joined the Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia. Having authored more than 1300 original articles, 500 book chapters and 50 books, his current h index is 167 and has over 110.000 citations (Google Scholar), which makes him the most cited scientist worldwide in the field of bipolar disorder over the last 10 years and one of the world’s most influential scientific minds, according to Clarivate Analytics ranking (Highly Cited). His papers have over 980.000 downloads. Furthermore, he is Editor-in-Chief of European Neuropsychopharmacology and has served as invited professor at McLean Hospital and Harvard University and as neuroscience scientific advisor to the European Presidency.

Senior psychiatrist at Mental Health Department HUVH. Principal Investigator, Group of Psychiatry, Mental Health and Addictions, Vall d’Hebron Research Institut (VHIR). CIBERSAM researcher (G27). Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Author of the book ‘Siente lo que Comes’, Ed. Diana, Grupo Planeta, 2022.

Her clinical interests comprise brain-gut axis disorders, psychosomatics and mood disorders (depression, treatment resistant depression) with medical comorbidity. To tackle research questions regarding the brain-gut axis mechanisms (immunity, inflammation, microbiome..) involved on this comorbidity, she has been involved as a researcher in competitive government and international grants: “Neurophysiology and digestive neurophysiology”(SAF 2013-43677-R and SAF2016-76648-R, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness), H2020- SC1-2019 DISCOvERIE project   to study the role of the brain-gut axis in the comorbidity between depression/anxiety and non-mental diseases related to pain (eg. fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, A Phase III, Randomized, Active Comparator-controlled, Clinical Trial to Study the Efficacy and Safety of the INtegral Cognitive REMediation program (INCREM) in patients with Depression (Marató TV3 202227-30-31-32-33) and in the project: “Indoleamine 2, 3 – dioxygenase (IDO) and kynurenines as potential biomarkers predictive of the development of major depression in patients with neuropathic pain“  among others.

Dr. Amanda Cano is currently the head of the Molecular Biology & Biomarkers program of Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona, and scientific collaborator at the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutic Chemistry of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the University of Barcelona. Previously, she was an adjunct professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Barcelona, and possess the official credentials of Assistant Professor of the National Agency for Evaluation and Accreditation (ANECA) of the Ministry of Science (Spanish government), and the Agency for the Quality of the University System of Catalonia (AQU) (Generalitat of Catalunya).

She graduated from Pharmacy at the University of Salamanca, and obtained her Master’s degree  and doctoral degree from the University of Barcelona. She is  member of the International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment (ISTAART, Alzheimer’s Association), the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology of the University of Barcelona (IN2UB) , Grupo Español de Investigación e Innovación en Vesiculas Extracelulares (GEIVEX), and the Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases Network (CIBERNED).

Currently, she has more than 95 scientific publications, has an H index of 32, is the PI of 3 competitive projects, directs 3 doctoral thesis and has participated in 5 competitive European projects, 13 competitive national projects, and 26 clinical trials. Her research focuses on the identification and evaluation of new biomarkers and molecular routes involved in the neuropathological development of the Alzheimer’s disease, through the development of proteomic, lipidomic and metabolomic analysis in representative human’s samples of the different stages of the disease continuum.

Jose A. Muñoz-Moreno, PhD (he/his) is clinical and health psychologist at the Infectious Diseases Department of the Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol and an associate professor at the Psychology and Education Sciences Faculty of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC).

José earned his PhD in Neurosciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). He leads he “Brain Function, Emotion, and Behaviour” research group at the Fundació Lluita contra la SIDA (FLS). His main focus is on the study of neurocognitive and emotional disorders in infectious diseases, particularly HIV and, recently, COVID-19 infections.