ILERVAS - El bus de la salut: connecting science and health

The ILERVAS Translational Research Program integrates a broad, multidisciplinary network of research groups from IRBLleida, complemented by external collaborations and a key patient foundation. This structure ensures a transversal approach that bridges basic, clinical, epidemiological, and public health research, promoting true translational science from molecular mechanisms to population-level implementation.

Coordinador del programa

Marcelino Bermúdez López

Coordinator group:  Vascular and renal translational research group

Current IRBLleida core groups

The ILERVAS Translational Research Program integrates the expertise of four consolidated research groups from IRBLleida, together with a patient association. This multidisciplinary collaboration brings together clinical, experimental, epidemiological, and molecular research approaches to address diseases from a population-based and translational perspective.

1. Vascular and Renal Translational Research Group (VRTR)


Group Leader: Prof. José Manuel Valdivielso
Research Area: Chronic diseases, surgery, and health care
Focus: Pathophysiology of vascular and renal disease, biomarker discovery, and translational large-animal and human cohort studies.

2. Translational Research in Respiratory Medicine (TRRM)

Group Leader: Prof. Ferran Barbé
Research Area: Chronic diseases, surgery, and health care
Focus: Sleep disorders, hypoxia, and respiratory pathophysiology as determinants of cardiometabolic and vascular disease.

3. Applied Epidemiology Research Group

Group Leader: Dr. Pere Godoy
Research Area: Epidemiology, infectious diseases, and public health
Focus: Population-based surveillance, preventive strategies, and data integration for public health interventions.

4. Metabolic Physiopathology Research Group

Group Leader: Prof. Reinald Pamplona
Research Area: Nutrition, metabolism, and cellular stress
Focus: Oxidative stress, lipidomics, and molecular mechanisms underlying metabolic and vascular ageing.


5. Research Group in Immunology and Metabolism (GRIM)

Group Leader: Prof. Joan Verdaguer and Concepción Mora Research
Area: Chronic diseases, surgery, and health care
Focus: Endocrinology (type 1 and 2 Diabetes), obesity

External collaborative groups and entities

The ILERVAS Program benefits from strategic collaborations with leading national research groups and clinical institutions, ensuring scientific excellence, methodological consistency, and translational reach beyond IRBLleida. These long-standing partnerships strengthen the program's inter-institutional integration and reinforce its capacity for large-scale, population-based studies.

1. Diabetes and Metabolism Research Group

Institution: Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR)
Head of the Group: Albert Lecube.

2. Department of Endocrinology & Nutrition

Institution: Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau
Head of the Group: Dídac Mauricio.

3. Clinical Ultrasound Research Group in Primary Care (GRECOCAP)

Institution: Pimary care, IDIAP Jordi Gol.
Head of the Group: Idaira Gimeno.

4. Unitat de Recerca en Lípids i Arteriosclerosi (URLA)

Institution: Institut d'Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili.
Head of the Group: Josep Ribalta.

5. Fundació Renal Jaume Arnó

The Fundació Renal Jaume Arnó (FRJA; www.fjarno.org) is a non-profit foundation based in Lleida devoted to improving the quality of life and clinical care of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and its associated comorbidities. The foundation promotes biomedical research, education, and social awareness on kidney health, acting as a bridge between patients, clinicians, and researchers.

Its long-standing collaboration with IRBLleida and the ILERVAS initiative has been instrumental in facilitating patient engagement, knowledge transfer, and community impact. The foundation's involvement strengthens the program's social dimension and sustainability, ensuring that translational discoveries are effectively communicated and implemented at the community level.

Objectives of the Translational Research Program

Description of the main objectives of the program

STRATEGIC VISION

The ILERVAS Translational Research Program is designed to address a critical gap in cardiovascular prevention: the limited capacity of conventional risk factor-based approaches to identify individuals at high risk before the onset of clinical disease.

The program proposes a paradigm shift towards an imaging-guided, precision prevention model, integrating multiterritorial vascular imaging with advanced cardiometabolic phenotyping in a real-world, population-based setting.

This strategic vision is operationalized through three interdependent pillars:

  • Precision risk stratification, incorporating imaging and multimodal biomarkers beyond conventional scores.
  • Early and scalable intervention, embedded in primary care and applicable to real-world populations.
  • Generation of actionable evidence, capable of informing clinical practice and health policy.
General objectives
  1. To establish a coordinated multidisciplinary research framework within IRBLleida, integrating expertise in clinical medicine, epidemiology, imaging, biostatistics, and molecular biology.
  2. To advance translational research in early detection and prevention of chronic cardiometabolic diseases, leveraging real-world population data and longitudinal follow-up.
  3. To position ILERVAS as a reference program at regional, national, and European levels in imaging-guided precision prevention.
  4. To ensure effective translation of research findings into clinical practice and public health strategies, promoting bidirectional knowledge transfer between research, healthcare systems, and society.
  5. To strengthen human capital, attracting and retaining early-career researchers and fostering independent research trajectories.
  6. To optimize the use of shared infrastructures and technological platforms (biobank, imaging, omics), ensuring reproducibility, efficiency, and scalability.
  7. To incorporate patient and citizen engagement as a core component of the research process, enhancing relevance and societal impact.
  8. To ensure program sustainability, through integration within IRBLleida's strategic framework and alignment with national and European funding priorities.
Specific scientific objectives
  1. To quantify the prevalence, distribution, and burden of subclinical atherosclerosis in asymptomatic middle-aged individuals using standardized multiterritorial vascular ultrasound.
  2. To characterize integrated cardiometabolic risk profiles, combining clinical, biochemical, imaging, lifestyle, and environmental data within the ILERVAS cohort (>8,000 participants).
  3. To identify and validate novel biomarkers and biological pathways associated with subclinical atherosclerosis, focusing on mechanisms linking metabolic dysfunction and inflammation.

Main activities and timeline of the Translational Research Program

Description of the research lines, specific scientific and training tasks, and specific actions to promote the visibility of the Program. Also, include the schedule of the future actions of the Program for the next 3 years.

RESEARCH LINES

Precision Risk Stratification and Prediction
  • Development of sex-specific algorithms for atherosclerosis and cardiovascular event prediction.
  • Vascular ultrasound-based quantification of atheroma burden for cardiovascular risk stratification.
  • Assessment of the ankle-brachial index as a population screening tool.
  • Integration of exposome data (environmental, behavioural, and occupational exposures) into risk prediction.
Pathophysiological Mechanisms and Biomarkers
  • Discovery of circulating and molecular biomarkers of atherosclerosis progression.
  • Role of oxidative stress, metabolism, and advanced glycation end-products (AGEs, measured by skin autofluorescence) in vascular injury.
  • Impact of metabolic and redox changes during ageing and neurodegeneration.
  • Mechanistic studies on hidden kidney disease and its link to atherosclerosis and hypertension.
Metabolic and Lifestyle Determinants
  • Influence of Mediterranean diet and physical exercise on cardiovascular and metabolic health.
  • Relationship between smoking and the burden of cardiovascular disease.
  • Characterization of body composition using anthropometric and mathematical models.
  • Study of prediabetes, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome in the development of subclinical atheromatosis.
Sleep and Chronobiology in Cardiovascular Disease
  • Analysis of the interaction between diabetes and respiratory function.
  • Impact of sleep-disordered breathing and nocturnal hypoxia on cardiovascular outcomes.
  • Chronobiology of vascular and metabolic regulation.
Population Epidemiology and Health Implementation
  • Applied epidemiology in the study of chronic and communicable diseases in primary care.
  • Translation of population-based findings into preventive and clinical strategies.