New EU-funded project to investigate the link between the kidneys and the brain
Associate Professor Eugenio Gutiérrez-Jiménez from the Department of Biomedicine is part of the MOMENTUM research project, which has received DKK 45 million in Horizon Europe funding. The project will investigate the link between chronic kidney disease and cognitive impairment.
Approximately 750 million people worldwide and more than 80 million in Europe live with chronic kidney disease. Some patients require haemodialysis, in which the blood is filtered by a machine because the kidneys are unable to function adequately. Among these patients, an estimated 30–60 per cent experience some form of cognitive impairment.
At Aarhus University, Eugenio Gutiérrez-Jiménez and his research group will investigate what happens in the brain when the kidneys are affected by disease. Among other things, they will study the blood supply to the brain and the interaction between nerve cells and blood vessels.
“This grant is a major step forward for my young research group. It gives us the opportunity to investigate how chronic disease may contribute to the development of cognitive impairment and dementia, while also strengthening our international collaboration,” says Eugenio Gutiérrez-Jiménez.
Aarhus University will receive just under DKK 3.4 million of the total funding. The funding will, among other things, finance a PhD student, and the research forms part of an international collaboration involving partners from ten countries. The project will run for four years from June 2026.
MOMENTUM aims to improve our understanding of the link between kidney disease and changes in the brain and, in the longer term, contribute to earlier detection and better treatment of patients who develop cognitive impairment.
Contact
Associate Professor Eugenio Gutiérrez-Jiménez
Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine – Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience (CFIN)
Phone: +45 40 86 12 81
Email: eugenio@cfin.au.dk
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
