This year, two professionals have joined the Clínic-IDIBAPS 50/50 Programme, who will dedicate 50% of their time to clinical practice and 50% to research. They are Neus Falgàs, a neurologist at Hospital Clínic and researcher in the IDIBAPS Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Cognitive Disorders group, and Laura Mezquita, a medical oncologist at the hospital and researcher in the IDIBAPS Translational Genomics and Targeted Therapies in Solid Tumours group.
Promoted by IDIBAPS in collaboration with Hospital Clínic Barcelona, the 50/50 Programme aims to foster clinician-scientist profiles and strengthen translational research. The initiative enables healthcare professionals to combine clinical practice with research projects, helping knowledge generated in the laboratory reach clinical care more rapidly.
Neus Falgàs will investigate the earliest mechanisms involved in Alzheimer’s disease
Neus Falgàs obtained her medical degree from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in 2011. She completed her neurology training at Hospital Clínic Barcelona in 2016 and earned her PhD from the Universitat de Barcelona in 2019, where she conducted her doctoral research at the Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Cognitive Disorders Unit of Hospital Clínic. She subsequently pursued postdoctoral training at the Memory and Aging Center, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF, 2019-2021). During this period, she investigated mechanisms of neurodegeneration and sleep disorders. In the first year of her fellowship, she was named an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health by the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI).
Her research focuses on the locus coeruleus, a small structure in the brainstem and the first brain region affected by tau pathology in Alzheimer’s disease, decades before cognitive symptoms emerge. By integrating multimodal biomarkers, including locus coeruleus-sensitive MRI (LC-MRI), polysomnography, and plasma and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers, she investigates how degeneration of this structure is associated with sleep disturbances and neuropsychiatric symptoms that may precede cognitive decline.
Her work also explores the role of the glymphatic system, vascular dysfunction, and menopause-related hormonal changes as factors that may influence the vulnerability of this structure, a particularly relevant line of research given that Alzheimer’s disease is more common in women.
Within the framework of the 50/50 Programme, she will lead a five-year project aimed at deciphering the impact of the earliest degenerative changes on brain function and their clinical manifestations beyond cognitive impairment. The goal is to advance the identification of early biomarkers and contribute to the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer’s disease.
Laura Mezquita will study the impact of radon on lung cancer
Laura Mezquita obtained her medical degree from the University of Salamanca and completed her training in Medical Oncology in Salamanca in 2011. She furthered her training at Gustave Roussy (France) between 2015 and 2020 as a Research Fellow in immuno-oncology and a Clinical Fellow in thoracic oncology. In 2018, she earned her PhD from the University of Alcalá with a thesis on radon and lung cancer, a research line that she continued to develop as a postdoctoral researcher in collaboration with France’s CEA and IRSN.
She currently combines clinical and research activities at Hospital Clínic Barcelona and IDIBAPS, within the framwork of the Clínic Barcelona Comprehensive Cancer Centre, and serves as Associate Professor at the Universitat de Barcelona. Since January 2025, she has been Head of the Thoracic Tumours Area within the Medical Oncology Department and Co-Coordinator of the hospital’s Molecular Tumour Board for Solid and Germline Tumours. ]
Since joining the institution in 2020, her research has focused on the environmental and occupational exposome, genetic susceptibility, multi-omics profiling, and precision medicine in lung cancer and other solid tumours. She is currently involved in several European and national projects and consortia in these fields.
As part of the 50/50 Programme, she will lead the BIORADON-01 project, which will investigate how exposure to radon gas may influence the molecular and immunological characteristics of lung cancer. The project will analyse samples from patients enrolled in the European EORTC-1920 BIORADON study to identify potential biomarkers that could support prevention, risk assessment, and more personalised follow-up and treatment strategies. The 50/50 Programme will enable her to combine this research with clinical work in the Thoracic Tumours Functional Unit and in the field of Precision Medicine.
A commitment to clinician-scientist talent
The 50/50 Programme is aimed at healthcare professionals with consolidated clinical experience, a doctoral degree, and a strong research track record, including international experience. It offers an initial five-year position within an IDIBAPS research group, with opportunities for further progression within the institution’s research career pathway.
Through this initiative, Hospital Clínic and IDIBAPS reinforce their commitment to translational research and to nurturing a new generation of professionals capable of integrating biomedical research with patient care.
