This past June 9 and 10, NeuroDebate took place, a conference promoted by the Bellvitge University Hospital (HUB), the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and the University of Barcelona, which this year has focused on omic sciences. Expert speakers shared their experience and debated on genomics and transcriptomics, proteomics, radiomics or lipidomics.
The transcriptomics and genomics panel, moderated by Dr. Jordi Gascón, section head of the Neurology Service at the HUB and principal investigator of the IDIBELL Neurological Diseases and Neurogenetics research group, discussed the need to avoid all kinds of biases.
“The possibility of applying these techniques to find biomarkers and therapeutic targets will allow us to better understand the pathophysiology of neurological diseases”, was one of the conclusions.
Dr. Sergio Martínez Yélamos, coordinator of the hospital’s Multiple Sclerosis Unit, moderated the round table on radiomics, in which Dr. Josep Munuera, from the Radiology Service of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, and Dr. Carles Majós, a specialist in Radiology from the IDI – HUB, presented the results of their own work in this area that have contributed to improving patient management. The first of them explained the fundamentals of new radiological data analysis techniques in the diagnosis of cerebrovascular diseases. For his part, Dr. Majós shared the results of a study carried out at Campus Bellvitge on how radiomic research allows a better classification of brain tumors.
The IDIBELL biotechnologist and postdoctoral researcher, Pol Andrés, moderated a proteomics block at NeuroDebate. The different technical approaches were discussed, as well as the current limitations, of the use of proteomics in the study of neurological diseases, with “a vision focused on personalized medicine and its applicability when it comes to finding useful biomarkers that allow an improvement of the management of the neurological patient”.
The head of the Motor Neuron Disease Functional Unitof the HUB and IDIBELL principal investigator, Mònica Povedano, moderated a discussion linked to lipidomics, one of the omic sciences that is currently used in neurodegenerative diseases.
Since the brain and nervous system have a substantial lipid composition, attendees discussed on “the importance of the large amount of information that these strategies can give us about certain pathologies, such as ALS or Alzheimer’s”, as exemplified by Dr. Gerard Pinyol, from IRB Lleida, an institute with which the Bellvitge researchers maintain close collaboration in this field. These lipids will allow us to understand the pathophysiology and establish phenotyping, stratification and prognosis of patients, and in the long term even become a therapeutic target.
“Treated in isolation, none of the omics sciences make any sense. We must continue advancing and work on them as a group to understand neurological diseases”, concluded Dr. Povedano.