Page 41 - MaquetaFundCIEN-2019-ENG

3.1.
Overview
EOn January 18, 2006, the CIEN Foundation signed an agreement with the Queen Sofia Foundation, under which the former assumes the management of the Alzheimer Project Research Unit (UIPA, for its acronym in Spanish). The context in which the UIPA is framed is the Alzheimer Project, promoted by the Queen So- fia Foundation. The main exponent of this project is the Queen Sofia Foundation Alzheimer Center (Alzheimer Complex), located in the Vallecas neighborhood (Madrid), which in 2017 has celebrated its 10th Anniversary. One of the most out- standing aspects of the Alzheimer Complex is that there is a Healthcare Center (formed by a Residence and a Day Center) for Alzheimer’s patients and related diseases as well as a Training Center, in addition to the UIPA. This Unit began its activity in April 2007, while the healthcare activity began at full capacity in the second half of that year.
Currently, the UIPA consists of five departments with a clear multidisciplinary ap- proach and with specific objectives, among which are the following: the monitor- ing and periodic evaluation of patients at the Alzheimer Center; the development of clinical, epidemiological, genetic, research projects as well as on biomarkers in biological samples or neuroimaging, in the field of neurodegenerative diseases, with special focus in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
Through this series of studies, new knowledge in genetics and molecular biology that have different applications is generated, that teach the researchers about the pathogenic mechanisms of the disease which can be in turn implemented into the field of diagnosis and, desirably, can result in the development of better treatments.
However, far from promising a simple solution to the problem of neurodegener- ative dementias, these advances anticipate an increasingly complex picture, in which the remedies will be achieved through small goals, and only by the com- plementary and synergistic work of many research groups. This complexity is the
3. Scientific activity
41