The project "New Magnetic Biomaterials for Brain Repair and Imaging after Stroke" (MAGBBRIS by its acronym in English) that coordinates the Dra. Anna Rosell, head of the Neurovascular Research Group at Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), has been selected in the framework of the EuroNanoMed III call for proposals, and will receive 150,000 euros funding from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, as a partner of this new European consortium.There is currently no pharmacological treatment for patients who have had stroke beyond the acute phase of the disease, in which reperfusion treatments are the only therapeutic option in the first hours of symptoms onset. Thereafter, for those stroke survivors presenting neurological deficits, neurorehabilitation programs are essential to improve the functional capacity of these patients, but they are still insufficient in many cases in which the consequences of the disease limit the functional capacity of the patients' daily life.The use of new drugs or advanced therapy medicinal products (such as cellular therapies) have been tested as enhancers of brain repair and plasticity following stroke in preclinical and clinical studies. But the biggest challenge is still the safe administration with a proper delivery in the areas of interest. With respect to the administration of certain secretomes (factors secreted by endothelial progenitor cells), the group of Dr. Rosell has already shown in a pre-clinical model of stroke that its intravenous administration "has repair properties, that is, in a brain damaged by cerebral ischemia, it shows ability to activate some mechanisms and regeneration processes related to cerebral plasticity (such as angiogenesis)" as comments Dr. Rosell.With this background "with this new project, what we want is to be more efficient in secretome release to the brain, reaching the specific areas of neuroerpair with a sustained release over time time", she adds. The project is developed in the context of cerebral ischemia (stroke models in mice) and the objective is "to generate a biocompatible and biodegradable nanocapsule of PLGA combined with magnetic material (SPIONs, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles) in which to transport the secretome of endothelial progenitor cells to areas of the brain where we want to stimulate neurorepair, by means of an external magnetic device (magnet)" she says. This will allow "to be more efficient in the arrival of the therapeutic product in the area of interest, to ensure that its release is maintained over time and can also be visualized, since the iron oxide of the nanocapsule acts as a contrast agent which can be detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)", says Dr. Anna Rosell.In the next 3 years, the MAGBBRIS project will develop 5 objectives in collaboration between the consortium participants: to generate the biomaterial for the treatment, to demonstrate its effectiveness in both in vitro models of neuro-vascular remodeling and in vivo cerebral ischemia while monitoring the possible toxic effects, visualizing the arrival of the nanocapsules at the cerebral level by different techniques of preclinical imaging (in this case, RM and PET), to generate the appropriate magnetic devices and finally, thanks to a company in the biotech sector in Poland, the process of industrialization of the therapeutic product will be demonstrated.In total, the MAGBBRIS project has received 958,984 euros distributed between the six European partners that form the consortium which is coordinated by Dr. Rosell, among them Dra. Anna Roig, Professor at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona ICMAB-CSIC, researchers from the University of Artois in France, from the San Raffaele Hospital of Milan in Italy, from the Institute of experimental physics of Kosice in Slovakia, and PureBiologics company in Poland, which is responsible for demonstrating that the secretome production can be achieved at industrial scale.