Barcelona Beta

What Barcelona Beta does

Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC) is the research institute of the Fundación Pasqual Maragall, a nonprofit foundation registered in Catalonia, Spain and founded in 2013, with BBRC publicly launched in September 2016. The institute is dedicated to the prevention of Alzheimer's disease and to the study of cognitive functions affected in normal and pathological aging, operating nine specialized research groups spanning molecular epidemiology and data science, AI and health data, population neuroscience, fluid biomarkers and translational neurology, clinical research and risk factors, and other related domains. Its technology stack centers on three integrated service platforms: a 3-Tesla MRI Neuroimaging Platform (with over 10,000 brain scans performed), a Fluid Biomarkers Platform for blood and cerebrospinal fluid analysis, and a dedicated Clinical Trials Unit staffed with medical, nursing, and coordination personnel.

BBRC's core scientific asset is the ALFA cohort, comprising over 2,700 cognitively healthy volunteer participants aged 45-74 — predominantly first-degree descendants of Alzheimer's patients — who undergo longitudinal MRI, PET, lumbar puncture, and cognitive assessments to enable pre-symptomatic detection and prevention research. This cohort is augmented by the Dementia Prevention Clinical Research Unit (~400 participants aged 60-80 with subjective memory complaints), the AlfaLife lifestyle intervention study (400 participants), and participation in the EPAD, AMYPAD, and World Wide FINGERS European prevention consortia.

The institute's business model is that of a non-profit research foundation. Primary funding flows from the "la Caixa" Foundation as core institutional sponsor, competitive research grants from European, national, and regional programs, contracts with pharmaceutical and biotech partners for clinical trial execution, fee-for-service MRI scanning for external research projects, donations, and membership contributions. BBRC also operates the "Incubadora de iniciativas" program — exemplified by the November 2021 creation of BetaScreen, the foundation's first commercial spin-off, which applies BBRC-originated algorithms to preclinical Alzheimer's detection. Customers are not commercial end-users but two principal constituencies: (a) volunteer research participants enrolled in longitudinal cohorts and interventional trials, and (b) academic and pharmaceutical research partners utilizing the institute's neuroimaging, biomarker, and clinical trial platforms.

Name

Barcelona Beta

Legal name

Fundación BarcelonaBeta Brain Research Center para la Investigación sobre el Alzheimer

Website

https://barcelonabeta.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC) is a Barcelona-based nonprofit research institute dedicated to Alzheimer's prevention, operating a 2,700+ participant ALFA cohort and three service platforms (3T MRI neuroimaging, fluid biomarkers, clinical trials) across nine research groups, funded primarily by the "la Caixa" Foundation and competitive research grants.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Alzheimer's Disease Research Services

NAICS

Medical Laboratories (621511), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Services-Medical Laboratories (8071)

akta.pro primary industry

Clinical Research & Trial Central Laboratories (HLAFAMAL)

akta.pro secondary industry

Disease-Specific Research & Support (e.g., Cancer, Diabetes, ALS) (BPAGACAA)

Keywords

• Alzheimer's disease research
• Neuroimaging services
• Biomarker analysis
• Clinical trials research
• Brain health research

Headquarters

HQ city

Barcelona

HQ country

Spain

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Research grants and public funding: BBRC operates as a nonprofit foundation funded primarily through competitive research grants from public funding bodies (European, national, and regional research programs) and institutional collaborations.
2. Institutional sponsorships: Core sponsorship from the 'la Caixa' Foundation (Obra Social 'la Caixa'), which funds the ALFA study cohort and multiple research programs. Additional sponsorship from the Fundación Pasqual Maragall parent foundation.
3. Clinical trials: Revenue from conducting clinical trials for pharmaceutical and biotech partners, including the EPAD European trials and other prevention-focused interventional studies.
4. Neuroimaging service fees: The neuroimaging platform offers MRI scanning services to external research projects on a fee-for-service basis.
5. Donations and philanthropy: Donations from individuals and organizations supporting Alzheimer's research, including membership/subscription programs (becoming a member of the foundation).

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC) is a nonprofit research institute dedicated to Alzheimer's disease prevention and the study of cognitive functions affected in healthy and pathological aging. It operates three core service platforms — a Neuroimaging Platform with a 3-Tesla MRI scanner, a Fluid Biomarkers Platform, and a Clinical Trials Unit — and runs longitudinal research programs including the ALFA cohort study of over 2,700 participants and the Clinical Research Unit for Dementia Prevention. The center conducts multi-omic, neuroimaging, and AI-driven research across nine specialized groups and offers fee-for-service research capabilities to external academic and pharmaceutical clients.

Product overview

Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC) operates as a research institute organized around three core service platforms: the Neuroimaging Platform (providing 3-Tesla MRI services), the Clinical Trials Unit, and the Fluid Biomarkers Platform. The center runs major research programs including the ALFA Study (cohort of 2,700+ participants) and the Clinical Research Unit for Dementia Prevention. BBRC has spun off BetaScreen for algorithm-based preclinical Alzheimer's detection. The center conducts research across nine specialized groups covering molecular epidemiology, data science, AI, and populational neuroscience.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Plataforma de Neuroimagen (Neuroimaging Platform) Comprehensive fee-for-service platform offering 3-Tesla brain MRI imaging for external research projects focused on Alzheimer's and brain health. Open to academic and pharmaceutical clients.
• Unidad de Ensayos Clínicos (Clinical Trials Unit) Integrated team of medical, nursing, coordination, and management personnel that conducts clinical trials for Alzheimer's prevention within dedicated facilities. Available for industry-sponsored clinical trials.
• Plataforma de Biomarcadores en Fluidos (Fluid Biomarkers Platform) Service for analyzing fluid biomarkers including blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples for Alzheimer's disease detection and progression tracking. Available to external research collaborators.
• Estudio ALFA (ALFA Study) Longitudinal cohort research program with more than 2,700 volunteer participants aged 45-74 who undergo MRI, PET scans, lumbar punctures, and olfactory tests for Alzheimer's early detection research. Participants are primarily first-degree descendants of Alzheimer's patients.
• Unidad de Investigación Clínica en Prevención de la Demencia (Clinical Research Unit for Dementia Prevention) Pioneer clinical research unit that calculates a 5-year dementia risk percentage for approximately 400 participants aged 60-80 with subjective memory complaints and provides personalized action plans for prevention.
• BetaScreen Spin-off company applying BBRC research through algorithms for early detection of Alzheimer's in the preclinical phase.

Quantifiable outcome

• 10,000 MRI brain scans performed at BBRC, representing a decade of neuroimaging research
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability6 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

18 partnerships are on record, tiered moderate, core and minor.

• PESA-CNIC-SANTANDER CohortmoderateStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2017Partnership joining two of Spain's largest research cohorts — the PESA-CNIC-SANTANDER cohort from Madrid and the ALFA cohort from Barcelona — to study the relationship between subclinical atherosclerosis and the preclinical phase of Alzheimer's disease. Over 6,000 individuals participate.
• EPAD (European Prevention of Alzheimer's Dementia)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2016European research consortium involving 35 centers (research institutions, universities, patient associations, and pharmaceutical laboratories) dedicated to preventing Alzheimer's dementia. BBRC is the top-recruiting center in Europe with over 200 participants.
• AMYPAD (Amyloid Imaging to Prevent Alzheimer's Disease)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015European initiative investigating the relevance of beta-amyloid PET brain scans as a diagnostic and therapeutic marker for Alzheimer's disease. AMYPAD works in close collaboration with the IMI-EPAD prevention initiative.
• Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic affiliation providing institutional support and collaborative research framework. UPF is referenced as a partner institution, with multiple researchers holding or having held affiliations with the university.
• World Wide FINGERScoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational consortium led by the Karolinska Institute aimed at preventing cognitive decline in at-risk individuals through multimodal interventions (diet, exercise, social activity). BBRC's Dementia Prevention Unit is part of this global network.
• Hospital Clínic de Barcelona / IDIBAPSmoderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborative research partnership for clinical studies, including investigations into subjective cognitive decline and brain changes in healthy individuals with beta-amyloid pathology.
• Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC)moderateTechnology or IntegrationComputational collaboration providing high-performance computing resources for BBRC's data-intensive neuroimaging and multi-omic research projects.
• HUB Alzheimer BarcelonacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAlzheimer's research hub bringing together seven institutions in Barcelona, including BBRC and the Fundación Pasqual Maragall. Organizes joint symposia and PhD fellowship programs (HUB Alzheimer Barcelona PhD Fellowships) to promote emerging research talent.
• University College London (UCL)moderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic partner co-organizing the annual Biomarker Course with BBRC, bringing together ~100 researchers to advance knowledge in neurodegenerative disease biomarkers.
• University of GothenburgmoderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic partner co-organizing the annual Biomarker Course with BBRC and University College London.
• Utrecht UniversitymoderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic affiliation of Dr. Natàlia Vilor-Tejedor, who leads the Molecular Epidemiology and Data Science group at BBRC while also leading a group at Utrecht University's Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences.
• Karolinska InstitutemoderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerBBRC's director scientific model (Dr. José Luis Molinuevo) was invited to present at the opening of Karolinska Institute's new memory clinic, and BBRC's Dementia Prevention Unit is part of the World Wide FINGERS consortium led by Karolinska.
• CIBER (Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina; Fragilidad y Envejecimiento Saludable)moderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerSpanish biomedical research networks (CIBER-BBN and CIBERFES) collaborating on BBRC studies involving neuroimaging, cognitive testing, and aging research.
• ACER (Associació Catalana d'Entitats de Recerca)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCatalan Association of Research Entities with the goal of consolidating Catalonia as an international benchmark in scientific and technological research. BBRC joined ACER in 2018.
• UNITED ConsortiummoderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational research consortium coordinated by Dr. Natàlia Vilor-Tejedor, focused on advancing molecular epidemiology and data science approaches to brain health research.
• Erasmus Medical CentermoderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational academic institution where Dr. Natàlia Vilor-Tejedor has held research and teaching positions, contributing to BBRC's international collaborative network.
• Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG)moderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerBarcelona-based research institution where Dr. Natàlia Vilor-Tejedor has conducted research, contributing to BBRC's local collaborative ecosystem.
• ISGlobal (Barcelona Institute for Global Health)moderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch institute where Dr. Natàlia Vilor-Tejedor has been affiliated, contributing to BBRC's environmental epidemiology and exposome research capabilities.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves11 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE): DZNE is one of Europe's largest publicly funded neurodegeneration research centers, covering biomarker discovery, clinical trials, and population cohorts. It is closely comparable to BBRC in scope and mission.
• UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI): UK DRI is a national network of neuroscience research centers focused on dementia causation, diagnosis, and treatment. It mirrors BBRC's model of distributed research groups and biomarker-driven discovery.
• Karolinska Institute (Aging Research Center): Karolinska leads the World Wide FINGERS network — of which BBRC is a member — and operates a major memory clinic. Both institutions focus on Alzheimer's prevention, multi-domain interventions, and longitudinal cohort research.
• Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Research Center: Mayo operates a major Alzheimer's Disease Research Center with strong biomarker and imaging programs, including longitudinal cohort studies and clinical trials like BBRC's.
• Banner Alzheimer's Institute: Banner is a leading U.S. Alzheimer's prevention research center with deep imaging and biomarker expertise and a major Alzheimer's Prevention Initiative (API) cohort, comparable in mission to BBRC's ALFA platform.

Emerging players

• Altoida: Altoida develops AI-driven digital cognitive assessments for early Alzheimer's detection, comparable to BBRC's algorithm-based preclinical detection efforts via BetaScreen.
• C2N Diagnostics: C2N commercializes blood-based biomarkers (PrecivityAD) for Alzheimer's detection — directly adjacent to BBRC's biomarker research and BetaScreen spin-off focus.

Broad incumbents

• Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Neurology / Alzheimer's Clinical & Translational Research Unit: MGH runs major Alzheimer's research programs including the Harvard Aging Brain Study. It is a broader academic medical center with overlapping neuroimaging and biomarker expertise.

Regional players

• Fundación CITA-Alzhéimer: CITA-Alzhéimer is a Spanish research foundation focused on Alzheimer's prevention and biomarker research, directly comparable as a regional peer in Spain.

Others

• Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC): BSC is a BBRC technology partner providing high-performance computing for neuroimaging and multi-omic data. It is an enabling infrastructure peer rather than a direct competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/BarcelonaBeta
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCs8UsbI3jF8rLm23V6pRdKg
• Facebookfacebook.com/fpmaragall
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/barcelona-beta
• Instagraminstagram.com/fpmaragall

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Barcelona Beta