The Generative Brain

CIMUS Biomedical Research Institute, University of Santiago de Compostela (Requena prion structure group)

CIMUS (also written CiMUS) is a singular research centre of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain, focused on molecular medicine and chronic diseases, with a drug discovery platform called Innopharma. The university created it in February 2010 (search excerpt). Within CIMUS, a prion group led by Jesus R. Requena, associate professor, works on the structure of the infectious prion form PrPSc and on how normal PrPC converts into it. With the University of Alberta it helped show that infectious prions are built as a four rung beta solenoid, and with the Trento prion lab it built an atom level computer model of prion structure and conversion that fed into the PPI-FIT drug discovery method. It coordinated the E-Rare CHAPRION project on pharmacological chaperones for genetic prion diseases, with Mario Negri as a partner. Its 2026 PNAS paper on which parts of PrPC unfold first lists Telethon grants GGP20043 and GMR24T2072, but those grants belong to the Trento lab head, not to the Santiago group. All its work is laboratory research; no drug from it has reached people.

Key facts

  • CIMUS is the Singular Research Centre in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases of the University of Santiago de Compostela; its director is Mabel Loza, it belongs to the Galician CIGUS network of excellent university centres, and in July 2025 it received the Spanish Maria de Maeztu unit of excellence distinction.
  • The university governing council created the centre on 17 February 2010 and its researchers moved into it from December 2011 (both seen only as search excerpts of the centre's own documents).
  • The prion group is led by Jesus R. Requena, associate professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela with a PhD in biochemistry from the same university, whose long running topic is the structure of PrPSc.
  • A September 2016 PLoS Pathogens paper, led by the University of Alberta with the Santiago group as co-author, used electron cryomicroscopy of infectious prion fibrils to conclude that a four rung beta solenoid is a key feature of mammalian prion architecture.
  • A July 2019 PLoS Pathogens paper with Requena as last author and the Trento CIBIO lab and physics department as partners gave a full atomistic model of mouse PrPSc and a simulated path of conversion; it was funded by Telethon grant TCP14009.
  • The Santiago group co-authored the January 2021 PPI-FIT paper, in which the Trento lab found compounds such as SM875 that lower PrP by binding a folding intermediate.
  • The group coordinated CHAPRION, a project in the E-Rare Joint Transnational Call 2014 with partners at the University of Konstanz and the Mario Negri Institute, aimed at small ligands that stabilise the normal shape of mutant PrP in genetic prion diseases (GSS, fatal familial insomnia and genetic CJD), including tests in animal models.
  • A funding database excerpt lists about 150,000 euro over three years from 2015 for the Santiago share of CHAPRION (search excerpt only).
  • Requena was first author of the 2016 consensus paper of the EU FP7 Priority project, which he coordinated, on protecting Europe's food chain from prions.
  • In April 2026 the group led a PNAS paper using NMR and thermal unfolding of bank vole PrPC that suggests the beta1 and beta2 region unfolds first and helix alpha2 last, as a step before PrPSc templating; co-authors came from Trento, CIC bioGUNE and CIBERINFEC, and INRAE.
  • The grant list of that PNAS paper names Xunta de Galicia, Spanish AEI grants PID2020-117465GB-I00 and PID2024-160022OB-I00, JPND and Telethon GGP20043 and GMR24T2072; the record does not say who holds which grant.
  • Telethon GGP20043 and GMR24T2072 also appear on Trento led papers without Santiago authors, and the 2025 EMBO Journal paper co-written by both groups states that both Telethon grants were awarded to the Trento lab head, while Requena was supported by Spanish AEI grant PID2020-117465GB-I00 with EU FEDER funds.
  • In June 2026 the group led a review in Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery with the Trento lab and IIT Genova on prion therapies that target PrP folding intermediates, judging such approaches promising but still early or preclinical.
  • The group also co-authors prion strain and transmission work led by CIC bioGUNE, including a February 2026 Brain Pathology paper on the L108I PrP variant in mice.
  • It was a partner in the Mario Negri led tetracationic porphyrin work with dual anti-prion activity, published in iScience in 2023.
  • The 2018 international prion conference PRION2018 was held in Santiago de Compostela on 22 to 25 May 2018, hosted by Requena.

Timeline

  1. 2010University governing council creates CIMUS (search excerpt).
  2. 2011Researchers start moving into the CIMUS centre (search excerpt).
  3. 2015E-Rare CHAPRION project on pharmacological chaperones for genetic prion diseases begins, coordinated from Santiago.
  4. 2016Priority project consensus paper on prions and the food chain published.
  5. 2016Cryo-EM paper on the four rung beta solenoid architecture of infectious prions published.
  6. 2018PRION2018 conference opens in Santiago de Compostela.
  7. 2019Full atomistic model of prion structure and conversion published with Trento.
  8. 2021PPI-FIT paper published with Trento.
  9. 2023Porphyrin anti-prion paper with Mario Negri published.
  10. 2025CIMUS receives the Maria de Maeztu distinction.
  11. 2026L108I mouse paper with CIC bioGUNE published.
  12. 2026PNAS paper on PrPC unfolding published.
  13. 2026Review on prion drug discovery with Trento published.
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