The TV3 Marathon promotes a project on spinal muscular atrophy at IRBLleida

The Fundació La Marató de TV3 will finance the project 'Pre-clinical analysis of new combined treatments for spinal muscular atrophy: effects on the survival of the moroneurone, synaptic integrity and the preservation of skeletal muscle' by Jordi Calderó Pardo, head of the experimental neuromuscular pathology research group at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine of Lleida (IRBLleida). The project also has the collaboration of Olga Tapia Martínez from the Marqués de Valdevilla Research Institute Foundation and Lucía Tabarés Domínguez from the University of Seville has received funding of 398,375.00 euros.

The Neural Signalling Unit group, led by Rosa Maria Soler Tatché, will also collaborate in the project.

A total of 91 leading teams in research on minority diseases will receive funding from the TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio Marathon to carry out 41 biomedical research projects of excellence. With the resources raised in the 2019 edition of the Marathon, over the next three years the award-winning researchers will work to obtain tests to detect these diseases at birth, reduce the time needed for diagnosis and provide efficient, appropriate and safe treatments, with the aim of improving the quality of life and life expectancy of the people who live together.

The works selected by the Fundació La Marató de TV3 are the best evaluated of the 228 submitted to the last call for research grants. A total of 190 international scientists who are experts in minority diseases reviewed the candidate works in an evaluation process coordinated by the Catalan Agency for Healthcare Quality and Evaluation of the Ministry of Health, which assessed the quality, methodology, scientific, health and social relevance, innovative value and viability. In 2025, the Foundation will present the results obtained from the research work at a scientific symposium.

The process of evaluating the projects has been done virtually because of the limitations of the pandemic, which has also forced a change in the way the results have been made public. Thus, the Foundation has replaced the usual academic act of awarding grants to the winning researchers with a video conducted by Quim Masferrer, last year's presenter.

In its 28 years of existence, La Marató has promoted 913 research projects, in which 8,500 researchers have taken part, and have made notable advances in the health of society as a whole. You can consult a selection in this space.