The study center found thousands of unauthorized samples in a freezer in the laboratory where the Spanish scientist worked.
The University of Barcelona (UB) has been investigating the death of a 45-year-old Spanish scientist in 2022 who was studying in the laboratories of the Faculty of Medicine for three months. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
In accordance with EarthThe study center is trying to determine the origin of “thousands of unauthorized samples” discovered in the laboratory where the scientist worked. The Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and the public consortium CIBER were also involved in the investigation.
A Spanish biochemist who joined laboratory 4141 in January 2018 developed symptoms compatible with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease —a neurodegenerative pathology that has been quietly incubating for years — and therefore requested a leave of absence in November 2020. He died two years later.
Isidre Ferrer, head of the laboratory, informed the University of Barcelona and the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute that in December 2018 the suspected samples Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
The University of Barcelona lab closed and decontaminated. According to Spanish media, the suspect samples were sent in December 2022 to CIC bioGUNE for analysis. In March 2023, they were confirmed to be potentially infectious.
