Our work is done in two labs simultaneously. The Mechanisms of Cancer and Ageing Laboratory (MoCaA Lab), was established in 2008 in Leicester (UK). A new site, the Biology of Neurodegeneration and Ageing Research Group (BoNaARG) was added in 2025 in Barcelona (Spain). Both groups work on the same projects and in coordination with each other, thus expanding the network of collaborations and opportunities.
The MoCaA Lab is part of the Department of
Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB) at the University
of Leicester (Leicester, UK), which was created in 2015 fusing the Departments of Biochemsitry and Cell
Physiology. Biochemsitry was established in 1961, is part of the
School of Biological Sciences within the College of Medicine and
Biological Sciences. MCB has grown to be one of the largest and most
successful departments at the University of Leicester, with around 30
members of academic staff, and a leading research unit in the UK, with a wide range of interests. MCB occupies the Henry Wellcome Building, which provides a
stimulating environment for pursuing state-of-the-art biochemical
research. The Department has a strong international reputation in many
areas, particularly structural biology.
The University of Leicester has been ranked as one of the top 200 universities in the world in the league table compiled by the Times Higher Education. This places it in the top 1% of universities worldwide. In the UK, Leicester is ranked as 19th in the Complete University Guide, 20th in the Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide and 21st in the Guardian University Guide. Leicester is the only university to have won Times Higher Awards in seven consecutive years. In 2025 it was shortlisted for The Times and The Sunday Times University of The Year 2025 award, crowned Daily Mail University of the Year 2025, shortlisted for the Times Higher Education University of the Year 2024, shooting up 14 places to 34th position in the 2025 Guardian University Guide. The University has climbed seven places to equal 27th position in the 2025 edition of The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide.
The University's research ranges from the invention of genetic fingerprinting, pioneering space explorations through to the search for King Richard III. The University's Global Challenges are a way in which this work from across the University comes together. Also, the University has established a Centre for Translational Therapeutics to facilitate clinical applications of basic research. The environment at the University of Leicester is optimal for interactions with scientists at the forefront of their fields.
Leicester is a city of 330,000 habitants in the region of the East Midlands (United Kingdom). The Leicester Urban Area, which includes adjacent towns such as Oadby and Wigson, has a total population of 508,916. Leicester is one of the oldest cities in England, with a history going back at least 2,000 years. Currently, it has a varied ethnic composition. Becasue of this, in addition to English, eight languages are commonly spoken: Gujarati is the preferred language of 16% of the city's residents, Punjabi 3%, Somali 4% and Urdu 2%. Other smaller language groups include Hindi,Bengali and Polish. The area experiences a maritime climate with mild to warm summers and cool winters
The BoNaARG was established in 2025 as a
sister lab to the Leicester site. In its embryonic form, it started in 2020 as part of the Epi4Health group of the Universitat
Oberta de Catalunya, in Barcelona (Spain), to which is still affiliated. After the pandemic restrictions ended, its first physical location was the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Institute (2023-24) and it finally moved, in its current form, into
the BarcelonaBeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), the research institute of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, one of the leading European charities in the area of Alzheimer's disease.
Since its creation in 2012, the BBRC has been committed to research into the prevention of Alzheimer's and the study of cognitive functions affected in healthy and pathological aging. The aim of the center is to contribute to the forefront of research on Alzheimer's and neurodegenerative diseases through the unique impact on prevention and treatment, always taking into consideration the social aspects of the disease.
The research of the BBRC focuses on the preclinical phase of Alzheimer's disease, a period prior to the appearance of the first symptoms, when changes in the brain associated with the disease are already occurring. The main objective is to better understand the different processes of Alzheimer's disease in order to detect it early and design prevention programs that delay or stop the onset of symptoms. For this reason, the BBRC extracts most of the data used in the research from the Alfa study, a research infrastructure composed of a cohort of almost 3,000 individuals without cognitive impairment, aged between 45 and 75 years, most of them first-degree descendants of people with Alzheimer's disease.
The center has four research facilities, the Data Center, the Research Management Office, the Neuroimaging Platform, and the Fluid Biomarkers Platform, dedicated to enhancing efficiency in the collection and exploitation of data for research projects, and ensuring the incorporation of new technologies from the field of Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases research. The BBRC and Pasqual Maragall Foundation headquarters, inaugurated in 2016, has the most advanced facilities for Alzheimer's research, including a state-of-the-art 3TMR MRI, a laboratory of fluid biomarkers equipped with the most advanced technologies in Europe, and also spaces for conducting phase II, III and IV clinical trials and pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies, among others.
Its headquarterson are on the Ciutadella campus of the Pompeu Fabra University, just meters away from the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), which brings together 1,700 residents, including 752 researchers, from 60 different countries, and houses seven other biomedical research institutions from various disciplines, including the Hospital del Mar Research Institute, the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG), and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), among others.
Sponsored by SELLECK CHEMICALS
Barcelona is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within city limits, its urban area extends to numerous neighbouring municipalities within the province of Barcelona and is home to around 5.3 million people, making it the fifth most populous urban area of the European Union. It is one of the largest metropolises on the Mediterranean Sea. Barcelona is a major cultural, economic, and financial centre in southwestern Europe, as well as the main biotech hub in Spain. It has a rich cultural heritage and is today an important cultural centre and a major tourist destination.
