The 2025 edition of the Health Research Call from the ”la Caixa” Foundation has selected 34 new cutting-edge biomedical research projects, awarding each of them up to one million euros. The projects are led by 25 research centres, universities and hospitals in Spain, and nine in Portugal.

This eighth edition of the call received 714 proposals in basic, clinical and translational research, and is particularly aimed at tackling major health challenges in several areas: neurosciences, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, oncology, infectious diseases and enabling technologies in any of these fields.

This year, agreements with the Breakthrough T1D Foundation and the Fundación Luzón have made it possible to place a stronger emphasis on funding initiatives focused on type 1 diabetes – two projects have been selected – and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS),

Melanie Perkins, co-founder of Canva; Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post; Jennifer Doudna, winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology and founder of numerous scientific start-ups; and Daphne Koller, co-founder of Coursera. These are some of the until-recently-minority cases of women leading companies capable of rewriting the rules of innovation.

Things are changing but the scenario is still strikingly unequal. Women own just one in four companies globally and, in Europe alone, they account for 73% of the “missing” entrepreneurs. This means there could be 5.5 million more women starting and managing new businesses if they had the same opportunities and participated in early-stage entrepreneurship at the same rate as men aged 30 to 49.

For years we’ve been reading about the ability of certain bacteria to resist traditional antibiotics. “Nightmare bacteria”, superbugs, multi-resistance are all concepts that are becoming increasingly common and reflect the same reality: the impossibility of treating bacterial infections with antimicrobial molecules.

In fact, bacteria become resistant due to random mutations. If we stop an antibiotic treatment too early, they have a greater chance to mutate; and if we use antibiotics unnecessarily, we encourage resistant strains to survive and multiply. This creates a vicious circle that jeopardises the effectiveness of our treatments.

Today we’re talking to researcher Marc Torrent, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona,

In art, what we see at first glance rarely tells the whole story. Looking beyond the obvious helps to reveal hidden details and creates unique interpretations and perspectives that can change our conception of a work.

The same is true in science. Until recently, cancer research tended to focus on the tumour: its shape, the weak points in the tumour’s cells… But now we know that, beyond the tumour itself, understanding its environment and how it interacts with other cells can alter how we study it and steer the design of new therapies.

In this latest Snapshot of the month we’ll discover, together with Alice Perucca from the group led by the CaixaResearch Health researcher Xavier Trepat at the IBEC and the artist and ”la Caixa” Foundation fellow Max Azemar i Carnicero,

Ideas are like roots that nourish one another. 

Every discovery is a new shoot. 

Every collaboration, an opportunity in bloom. 

Diversity, connection and community are essential for growth. 

This was the spirit that defined the fourth edition of the Health Research Meeting. On the 2nd and 3rd of  October, science and nature came together to welcome nearly 50 researchers from the 2021 Health Research call at the Cap Roig Gardens. It was two days filled with networking, presentations and open discussions. 

This time, the event was moderated by the writer and science communicator Vivienne Parry,