The Generative Brain
IDIBELL and Bellvitge University Hospital neuropathology and brain bank, Hospitalet de Llobregat logo

IDIBELL and Bellvitge University Hospital neuropathology and brain bank, Hospitalet de Llobregat

Bellvitge University Hospital (HUB) and its research institute IDIBELL, in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat near Barcelona, hosted one of the main Spanish human prion neuropathology groups for about two decades. Isidro Ferrer founded the hospital's Institute of Neuropathology and Brain Bank in 1996 and directed it until 2016, has coordinated the IDIBELL Neuropathology group since 2004 and the CIBERNED Neuropathology group since 2012. From 2000 the group published molecular neuropathology of CJD brain and, later, BSE and human CJD transmission studies in transgenic mice. From about 2018 to 2022 the same group housed the CSF and plasma prion biomarker work of Franc Llorens with the Goettingen surveillance centre (now historical). Bellvitge and IDIBELL were partners in the EU NEUROPRION and BrainNet Europe II networks. Today the brain collection sits as the Neurological Tissue Bank inside the HUB-ICO-IDIBELL Biobank, a registered public biobank, whose pages do not mention prion disease. The Catalan clinical referral centre for prion diagnosis named in the sources is Hospital Clinic, not Bellvitge.

Key facts

  • Ferrer founded and directed the Institute of Neuropathology and Brain Bank at Bellvitge University Hospital from 1996 to 2016, then became senior clinical neuropathologist there; he has coordinated the IDIBELL Neuropathology group since 2004 and the CIBERNED Neuropathology group since 2012, and his CV lists prion diseases among the protein aggregation diseases he worked on.
  • A search excerpt of a 2023 profile says Ferrer retired from the hospital in 2016 and taught pathological anatomy at the University of Barcelona until 2022, which conflicts with the profile (last changed 14 June 2021) showing ongoing coordination.
  • Bellvitge-affiliated human prion papers start in 2000 with a study of PrP deposits and synaptic proteins in the CJD cerebellum, followed from 2003 to 2007 by a series on receptor, oxidative and transcription factor changes in CJD brain and in 2006 by studies in BSE-infected bovine PrP transgenic mice.
  • Hospital Universitario de Bellvitge and the IDIBELL foundation were both participants in NEUROPRION, the FP6 prion Network of Excellence (2003 to 2009, 14.4 million euro EU contribution, coordinated by the French CEA).
  • Hospital de Bellvitge with the University of Barcelona, and the IDIBELL foundation, were participants in BrainNet Europe II (2004 to 2009), an FP6 network of European brain banks that named prion disease among its focus diseases.
  • The 2021 annual report places the Neuropathology group in IDIBELL's Neuroscience area under Ferrer, with Llorens and Barrachina as principal investigators and a 2020 to 2022 Catalan Department of Health project on new-generation fluid biomarker platforms for dementias led by Llorens.
  • Papers carrying IDIBELL and CIBERNED affiliations include the 2021 study showing CSF soluble TREM2 rises in sporadic, E200K, V210I and iatrogenic CJD but not in fatal familial insomnia, done with Goettingen, ISS Rome, Madrid and Alberta coauthors.
  • The same affiliation appears on the 2021 plasma NfL and t-tau paper, the 2022 Brain multicentre study of CSF biomarkers in 302 genetic prion disease patients and the 2022 plasma NfL in FFI paper, all with the Goettingen centre.
  • In a 2021 mouse study the IDIBELL group, with Toulouse veterinary school colleagues (org-inra-ihap-toulouse), found astrocyte activation and late oligodendrocyte and myelin damage in human PrP mice inoculated with sporadic CJD MM1 brain, funded by the POCTEFA RedPrion cross-border project.
  • Ferrer published a single-author 2025 review of fluid biomarkers in human prion disease with biosafety guidance, and coauthored the April 2026 report of two new VPSPr cases from Navarra with CIC bioGUNE and CIBERINFEC authors and the Vienna reference centre, listing Bellvitge University Hospital-IDIBELL.
  • The HUB-ICO-IDIBELL Biobank is a public non-profit biobank for Bellvitge University Hospital, the Catalan Institute of Oncology and associated centres, authorised by the Catalan health department, registered with ISCIII as B.0000609 and part of the national biobank and biomodel platform; its collections include a Neurological Tissue Bank.
  • The biobank was first ISO 9001 certified in 2017 and the June 2022 renewal covered the Neurological Tissue Bank; in the preceding year it made 54 sample transfers and held about 80,000 samples.
  • No page of the biobank or hospital opened mentions prion disease, CJD, or a brain donation route for prion cases.

Timeline

  1. 1996Institute of Neuropathology and Brain Bank founded at Bellvitge University Hospital.
  2. 2000First indexed Bellvitge-affiliated CJD neuropathology paper.
  3. 2003NEUROPRION network starts with Bellvitge hospital and IDIBELL as partners.
  4. 2004Ferrer starts coordinating the IDIBELL Neuropathology group.
  5. 2004BrainNet Europe II starts with Bellvitge and IDIBELL as partners.
  6. 2009NEUROPRION and BrainNet Europe II end.
  7. 2012Ferrer starts coordinating the CIBERNED Neuropathology group.
  8. 2016Ferrer's term as director of the Institute of Neuropathology and Brain Bank ends.
  9. 2017HUB-ICO-IDIBELL Biobank first certified to ISO 9001.
  10. 2021TREM2 in prion disease paper published by the IDIBELL group with Goettingen.
  11. 2022Brain study of CSF biomarkers in genetic prion disease with IDIBELL affiliation.
  12. 2022ISO 9001 renewal audit covering the Neurological Tissue Bank.
  13. 2025Ferrer review of fluid biomarkers and biosafety in human prion disease.
  14. 2025VPSPr two-case report published online with a Bellvitge-IDIBELL coauthor (print April 2026).
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