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Published on 19/10/2026
“La Caixa” Foundation supports a biomedical research project at the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS)
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Representatives of the 80 projects selected under the ”la Caixa” Foundation’s funding programme for research, innovation and health promotion, held at CosmoCaixa (Barcelona) | Photograph courtesy of the ”la Caixa” Foundation
Seville, 19 October 2026
The ”la Caixa” Foundation has awarded funding to 80 new biomedical and health research projects led by research centres, universities and hospitals in Spain and Portugal. The projects have received a total of €32.4 million in funding and address current healthcare challenges, from generating scientific knowledge to developing solutions with a social impact.
Among the selected projects is one led by Simón Méndez Ferrer of the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS), who has been awarded 975,575 € by the ”la Caixa” Foundation to investigate how inflammatory blood cells contribute to blood clotting. The project was selected under the Foundation’s 2026 Health Research Call for Proposals.
The project, which is being carried out in collaboration with Chloé James of the University of Bordeaux, aims to understand how inflammatory blood cells contribute to the formation of blood clots in people with myeloproliferative neoplasms, a group of chronic blood disorders characterised by the excessive production of blood cells. These disorders can lead to serious complications, including cardiovascular problems resulting from blood clot formation.
Using human cell models and experimental disease models, the research team will study the interactions between blood cells and the mechanisms that prevent certain ageing inflammatory cells from being cleared, as well as their abnormal interactions with other cells, which could increase the risk of thrombosis. The findings could help identify biomarkers to improve the prediction of thrombosis risk and optimise treatment, avoiding its toxic effects in low-risk patients. Identifying new therapeutic targets could help prevent these complications in the future and improve patient outcomes.
About the ”la Caixa” Foundation’s Health Research Call for Proposals
Now in its ninth edition, the Health Research Call for Proposals supports basic, clinical and translational research addressing major challenges in biomedicine and health across several fields: neuroscience, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, oncology, infectious diseases, and enabling technologies in any of these areas.
Researchers selected under this call often seek to understand the biological processes underlying a disease, exploring, for example, how cells behave, how different systems in the body interact, and how genetic, environmental and other factors influence disease progression.
The 2026 call received 800 applications, of which 32 were selected (23 at institutions in Spain and nine in Portugal). Each project can receive up to €1 million to investigate how diseases arise and progress, and how interactions between biological systems influence these processes.
Taken together, the funded projects combine fundamental biology with advanced approaches in genomics, bioengineering, computational modelling and data science to generate new knowledge that could pave the way for new therapies, diagnostic methods and intervention strategies.
The call is run in collaboration with the Luzón Foundation, with which the ”la Caixa” Foundation has a partnership to co-fund a project on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), a public body affiliated with Portugal’s Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation, which is funding three of the nine Portuguese projects selected in this edition.
In addition to these Health Research grants, the ”la Caixa” Foundation has also awarded grants under the CaixaImpulse Health Innovation and Health Promotion Research calls, which support other stages of the scientific process.
“La Caixa” Foundation supports a biomedical research project at the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS)
Representatives of the 80 projects selected under the ”la Caixa” Foundation’s funding programme for research, innovation and health promotion, held at CosmoCaixa (Barcelona) | Photograph courtesy of the ”la Caixa” Foundation
Seville, 19 October 2026
The ”la Caixa” Foundation has awarded funding to 80 new biomedical and health research projects led by research centres, universities and hospitals in Spain and Portugal. The projects have received a total of €32.4 million in funding and address current healthcare challenges, from generating scientific knowledge to developing solutions with a social impact.
Among the selected projects is one led by Simón Méndez Ferrer of the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS), who has been awarded 975,575 € by the ”la Caixa” Foundation to investigate how inflammatory blood cells contribute to blood clotting. The project was selected under the Foundation’s 2026 Health Research Call for Proposals.
The project, which is being carried out in collaboration with Chloé James of the University of Bordeaux, aims to understand how inflammatory blood cells contribute to the formation of blood clots in people with myeloproliferative neoplasms, a group of chronic blood disorders characterised by the excessive production of blood cells. These disorders can lead to serious complications, including cardiovascular problems resulting from blood clot formation.
Using human cell models and experimental disease models, the research team will study the interactions between blood cells and the mechanisms that prevent certain ageing inflammatory cells from being cleared, as well as their abnormal interactions with other cells, which could increase the risk of thrombosis. The findings could help identify biomarkers to improve the prediction of thrombosis risk and optimise treatment, avoiding its toxic effects in low-risk patients. Identifying new therapeutic targets could help prevent these complications in the future and improve patient outcomes.
About the ”la Caixa” Foundation’s Health Research Call for Proposals
Now in its ninth edition, the Health Research Call for Proposals supports basic, clinical and translational research addressing major challenges in biomedicine and health across several fields: neuroscience, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, oncology, infectious diseases, and enabling technologies in any of these areas.
Researchers selected under this call often seek to understand the biological processes underlying a disease, exploring, for example, how cells behave, how different systems in the body interact, and how genetic, environmental and other factors influence disease progression.
The 2026 call received 800 applications, of which 32 were selected (23 at institutions in Spain and nine in Portugal). Each project can receive up to €1 million to investigate how diseases arise and progress, and how interactions between biological systems influence these processes.
Taken together, the funded projects combine fundamental biology with advanced approaches in genomics, bioengineering, computational modelling and data science to generate new knowledge that could pave the way for new therapies, diagnostic methods and intervention strategies.
The call is run in collaboration with the Luzón Foundation, with which the ”la Caixa” Foundation has a partnership to co-fund a project on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), a public body affiliated with Portugal’s Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation, which is funding three of the nine Portuguese projects selected in this edition.
In addition to these Health Research grants, the ”la Caixa” Foundation has also awarded grants under the CaixaImpulse Health Innovation and Health Promotion Research calls, which support other stages of the scientific process.
Publicado el: 19/10/2026
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