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“The brain is the most wonderful organ of nature”

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With the excuse that the Research Center in Neurosciences, Achucarro, has opened its new headquarters, we have called the scientific director of the center, Carlos Matute Almauri. He has responded immediately to the interview request. And he immediately answered the questions, because it is clear: he has passion.

What has surprised, altered or fascinated you the most since you started working?

Undoubtedly, research on the brain and brain has been the most fascinating and influential for me. Starting with Santiago Ramón y Cajal, his drawing, his rigorous look to describe what he saw and how this complex structure worked to invent intelligence... I was fascinated from the beginning and I still love it.

Ramón y Cajal has been from the scientific point of view to the height of Einstein, Newton and Darwin, and he was also an artist. I have in my hands two books that collect their images of 1972, given by my director on my wedding day. They are wonderful.

Then the brain has always fascinated me: Studying at the medical school, it seemed to me that the brain was a magical box full of mystery and secrets. And still the landscapes that appear when looking under a microscope seem spectacular to me. It is the most wonderful organ of nature.

What would you like to witness the revolution or the discovery in your career?

So many things can be answered... But once I'm asked, I'd like to see that effective drugs are available to fight neurological diseases. For example, the medicines we have for Alzheimer's are palliative and non-curative. It can not be cured, but it can relieve and curb.

I would love to witness the appearance of a treatment that achieves it, and that we are able to avoid the loss suffered by these patients. Because it must be terrible to realize that everything you have lived, what you have been, escapes you. If we manage to avoid it and I don't care who gets it, we are all going to provide. This is teamwork and we will all celebrate it.