The Valdecilla Health Research Institute (IDIVAL) has awarded funding through its innovation support program (INNVAL) to a project led by researcher Raquel López, from the Immunopathology group. The project aims to improve the diagnosis and prognosis of IgA‑mediated vasculitis (IgAV), an inflammatory disease that poses a significant challenge in clinical practice, particularly due to its potential renal involvement.
The initiative is part of IDIVAL’s strategy to promote innovation and the transfer of knowledge to the healthcare system, supporting projects with a direct impact on patient care. “The INNVAL program pushes us to think about how to truly translate what we do in the laboratory into daily clinical practice, and that represents a very enriching shift in perspective,” López explains.
Less invasive and more accurate diagnosis
Currently, the diagnosis of IgA vasculitis relies mainly on clinical criteria and invasive procedures such as skin or kidney biopsies—techniques with important limitations that are especially challenging in pediatric populations. In this context, the project seeks to demonstrate the potential of analyzing specific genetic markers of the HLA system and serum levels of aberrantly glycosylated IgA1 as tools for routine clinical use.
“We want to provide minimally invasive tools that can improve the diagnosis and prognosis of the disease using just a simple blood sample,” the researcher notes. “Until now, there was scientific evidence supporting these biomarkers, but they had not been systematically integrated into clinical practice.”
The study will be conducted in patients with clinical suspicion of IgAV treated at the Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital, combining detailed clinical information with the analysis of genetic and serum biomarkers. Using these data, diagnostic and prognostic algorithms will be developed through machine‑learning techniques, with the goal of optimizing early disease identification and predicting the risk of nephritis.
Direct impact on clinical practice
The expected impact of the project is twofold: enabling a more precise and earlier diagnosis of IgA vasculitis, and improving renal‑risk stratification, allowing for more personalized follow‑up. “Our ultimate goal is to identify early those patients at higher risk of developing nephritis so we can intervene sooner and prevent serious complications,” López emphasizes.
This approach could reduce the need for invasive procedures and minimize long‑term consequences such as kidney failure, dialysis, or transplantation, contributing to a significant improvement in patients’ quality of life.
The project builds on a well‑established and continuously growing line of research supported by competitive regional and national funding. “It is a stable and productive line of work, with results that are generating increasing interest and have clear clinical applicability,” the researcher highlights.
With this initiative, IDIVAL reinforces its commitment to health innovation and to promoting projects that connect biomedical research with the real needs of the healthcare system and patients, fostering the development of solutions with high clinical impact and strong translational potential.
