The Generative Brain
CIBERNED, Centro de Investigacion Biomedica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas, Spain logo

CIBERNED, Centro de Investigacion Biomedica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas, Spain

CIBERNED is the neurodegenerative diseases area of CIBER, a Spanish research consortium that depends on the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), co-financed by EU structural funds, with about 55 research groups and more than 630 staff across hospitals, universities and public research bodies. Its Scientific Director is Adolfo Lopez de Munain, named at the end of 2020, and its four programmes cover Alzheimer and other dementias, Parkinson and motor disorders, ALS and neuromuscular disease, and neuroinflammation; prion disease is not a named programme. Prion work appears through individual member groups: on 2024 to 2026 publication affiliations these are the Bellvitge-IDIBELL neuropathology group of Isidro Ferrer (human prion neuropathology and fluid biomarkers), Miguel Calero at ISCIII Madrid (CJD genetics, and the national reference lab for 14-3-3 and PRNP testing), Jose Antonio del Rio at the University of Barcelona and IBEC (PrPC and tau biology), and Martin-Burriel and Toivonen at the University of Zaragoza (animal prion blood microRNAs). The plasma biomarker group of Franc Llorens in Barcelona, which held a 2021 CJD Foundation grant with Inga Zerr, is past work: he is listed in this registry as a historical entry and is not a current contact. Joaquin Castilla at CIC bioGUNE collaborates with CIBERNED members but is affiliated to CIBERINFEC, not CIBERNED. Spanish CJD surveillance itself is run by the ISCIII Centro Nacional de Epidemiologia, not by CIBERNED.

Key facts

  • CIBERNED is the neurodegenerative diseases area of CIBER, a consortium dependent on ISCIII under the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, co-financed by FEDER and FSE, with 55 groups and more than 630 people; the director welcome page gives 56 groups.
  • The steering committee names Adolfo Lopez de Munain as Scientific Director, Miguel Medina and Isabel Farinas as deputies, and coordinators for four disease programmes; none is prion-specific.
  • The mission covers translational research, clinical guidelines and shared platforms such as biobanks, neuroimaging and the DEGESCO genetics resource; neither the mission nor the programme pages name prion disease or CJD.
  • Isidro Ferrer has coordinated the CIBERNED Neuropathology group since 2012 and the IDIBELL Neuropathology group since 2004, and founded the Bellvitge Institute of Neuropathology and Brain Bank (director 1996 to 2016).
  • In 2025 Ferrer published a review of fluid biomarkers in human prion disease with biosafety guidance, and in April 2026 he coauthored two new VPSPr case reports from Navarra with Castilla's CIC bioGUNE lab and the Vienna reference centre.
  • Miguel Calero (miguel-calero; ISCIII, CIBERNED) coauthored the 2024 international GWAS of 3,773 sporadic CJD cases with the MRC Prion Unit and others, which found PRNP codon 129 the main modifier of survival.
  • The ISCIII Centro Nacional de Microbiologia lab directed by Calero was accredited in October 2020 under ISO 15189 for CSF 14-3-3 and PRNP gene testing, as the reference lab for human TSE samples (see org-isciii-cnm-tse-lab).
  • Other 2025 CIBERNED prion-related output includes a University of Barcelona and IBEC review of PrPC and tau via GSK3beta (part funded by CIBERNED) and a Zaragoza study of 66 dysregulated blood microRNAs in scrapie-affected sheep.
  • The former Llorens group (CIBERNED, IDIBELL, University of Barcelona) and Inga Zerr (DZNE Goettingen) received a 2021 CJD Foundation grant for a blood biomarker test for sporadic CJD based on plasma t-tau, NfL and GFAP; it is a 2021 award, not a 2025 one.
  • CIBERNED authors, through Llorens, took part in the 2021 international biomarker and diagnostic guidelines for sporadic CJD and in the 2022 Brain multicentre study of CSF biomarkers in genetic prion disease with the Goettingen centre.
  • Human TSE surveillance in Spain is coordinated by the ISCIII Centro Nacional de Epidemiologia; the national registry started data collection in 1995 (cases from 1993) and was formally created by a 1996 government order; a state order of February 2001 made reporting compulsory, while the registry staff date compulsory notification from 2000; the CNE page does not mention CIBERNED (see org-isciii-cne-rneeth).
  • No CIBERNED-affiliated human CJD RT-QuIC validation study appeared in 2023 to 2026 searches, and no CIBERNED news item from September and October 2026 concerns prion disease or an open call.

Timeline

  1. 1995Spanish national registry of human TSE begins at the Centro Nacional de Epidemiologia, including cases from 1993.
  2. 2001A state order makes human TSE compulsory notifiable diseases in Spain (the registry staff date compulsory notification from 2000).
  3. 2012Isidro Ferrer becomes coordinator of the CIBERNED Neuropathology group.
  4. 2020ISCIII Centro Nacional de Microbiologia lab led by Calero accredited for 14-3-3 and PRNP testing.
  5. 2020Adolfo Lopez de Munain named incoming Scientific Director of CIBERNED.
  6. 2021CJD Foundation grant to the Llorens group and Zerr for a blood biomarker test for sporadic CJD.
  7. 2021Lancet Neurology sporadic CJD biomarker and diagnostic guidelines published with CIBERNED coauthorship.
  8. 2022Brain study of CSF biomarkers in genetic prion disease with the Llorens group as last author.
  9. 2024Sporadic CJD GWAS with Calero as coauthor published in PLoS One.
  10. 2025Zaragoza CIBERNED members publish blood microRNA study in prion-affected sheep.
  11. 2025Del Rio and Gavin review of PrPC and tau published, part funded by CIBERNED.
  12. 2026Ferrer coauthors two new VPSPr case reports with CIC bioGUNE and Vienna.
Sources for this page