BMC SAS hosted the first meeting of an international project focused on the treatment of spinal cord injuries in Košice
The first meeting of partners in the international scientific SEED project B-CENTRE, part of the A4L_BRIDGE (No. 101136453) initiative of the Alliance4Life (A4L). The B-CENTRE project, coordinated by Dr. Karolína Kuchárová from BMC SAS, focuses on research into biomarkers and changes in EEG brain activity following traumatic spinal cord injury.
In addition to the BMC SAS, the meeting was attended by partner teams from Latvia (Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis), Lithuania (Vilnius University), and the Czech Republic (Czech Academy of Sciences). The goal of the A4L consortium, which funds the project and of which the BMC SAV is a member, is to contribute to the advancement of life sciences in Central and Eastern Europe.
As part of the project, researchers at the Institute of Neurobiology of the BMC SAS in Košice will participate in the analysis of molecular biomarkers from blood and potentially also in the evaluation of EEG brain activity.
Traumatic injuries to the central nervous system are among the leading causes of long-term neurological disability worldwide and represent a significant public health burden. Despite advances in acute care, there remains a critical shortage of biomarkers capable of capturing post-traumatic neuroregeneration and response to treatment.
“Current approaches rely primarily on static indicators of tissue damage or inflammation, which provide only a limited view of the dynamic regenerative and adaptive processes that form the basis of functional recovery. The goal of this project is to create a mechanistically grounded system for monitoring neuroregeneration following central nervous system injury. The project combines molecular biomarkers from blood with functional neurophysiological measurements,” explains Dr. Karolína Kuchárová.
By shifting the focus from prognostic damage markers to dynamic, intervention-sensitive recovery signatures, the project addresses a key gap in translational neurotrauma research.
The partner institutions will complement each other with their expertise in molecular biology, neurophysiology, and experimental neurotraumatology.
The project can lay a solid foundation for future large-scale initiatives under the Horizon Europe program and the Brain Health Partnership initiative.
The Seed Fund of the A4L BRIDGE project aims to support the launch of small collaborative scientific projects emerging from the activities of the Virtual Research Center (VRC). The goal is to enable partners to test initial joint ideas, build mutual trust, obtain preliminary results, and create a foundation for larger consortia and proposals under Horizon Europe or other international funding schemes.
Text: K. Kuchárová, BMC SAS; E. Rybárová, BMC SAS
Foto: archive of K. Kuchárová
