1. Origins: the School of Paediatrics of Dr Bueno and Dr Sarría
The roots of the GENUD group (Growth, Exercise, Nutrition and Development) go back to the Chair of Paediatrics at the University of Zaragoza, led by the eminent Dr Manuel Bueno Sánchez. Under his leadership, a prolific school of clinical and social paediatrics focused on child development took shape.
This initial core was joined by a key figure, Dr Antonio Sarría Chueca, who brought methodological rigour in anthropometry and body composition. Dr Sarría pioneered the use of standardised measurement techniques (such as skinfolds and circumferences) and enabled the shift from a purely clinical perspective towards epidemiological research in populations of healthy children. This fruitful clinical and methodological collaboration laid the scientific foundations of the group and trained the researchers who would later shape it.
2. The 1990s: Public Health and Consolidation
Under the leadership of Dr Luis Alberto Moreno Aznar, the team took a qualitative leap towards modern nutritional epidemiology in the 1990s. During this period, data collection and the assessment of nutritional status and childhood obesity risk factors in Aragon were systematised, building a multidisciplinary team that began to stand out nationally.
3. Embracing Diversity and Adapted Exercise
With the incorporation of sports medicine into GENUD, the group broadened its vision towards health promotion in special populations under the leadership of Dr José Antonio Casajús. A milestone in this area was the creation of research lines to assess physical fitness, body composition and health in specific population groups such as children and adolescents, older adults and adolescents with intellectual disabilities. This initiative led to the creation of the Exercise and Health Spanish Research Network (EXERNET), which, led by GENUD, has expanded throughout Spain. One of its most relevant projects is EXERNET-Elder (started by Dr Ignacio Ara and continued by Dr Germán Vicente Rodríguez). This ambitious multicentre study, which has followed cohorts of adults over 65 since 2008, pioneered in Spain the design of multicomponent training (strength, balance and endurance), scientifically demonstrating how structured exercise can reverse frailty, reduce the risk of falls and substantially improve functional capacity in older age.
4. The 2000s: Internationalisation and Large European Projects
The 2000s marked the group's leap to the forefront of international research on child and adolescent health, leading or actively participating in ambitious consortia funded by the European Union:
HELENA project (2005-2008): coordinated from the University of Zaragoza, the Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence study assessed, in a standardised way, the lifestyle, nutrition and metabolic and genetic profile of thousands of European adolescents.
IDEFICS and I.Family projects (2006-2017): large pan-European studies aimed at unravelling the determinants of childhood obesity, as well as designing and evaluating effective community- and family-based interventions.
5. National Projects: Bone Density in Cyclists, Swimmers and Footballers
In parallel, GENUD expanded its research in sports medicine under the leadership of key researchers such as Dr Germán Vicente Rodríguez, studying the impact of different sports on young athletes. Through national projects, the effect of high-impact sports (such as football) was compared with non-weight-bearing sports (such as swimming or cycling) on bone mineral density and musculoskeletal health during the critical stages of pubertal growth.
6. The Clinical Link: Paediatric Care and Neonatal Health
One of GENUD's greatest strengths has been its ability to connect basic research with hospital practice. This clinical and translational line has been strongly driven by Dr Gerardo Rodríguez Martínez and Dr Gloria Bueno Lozano. Their work has enabled pioneering hospital-based studies on the early programming of health, analysing how nutrition and accelerated growth in the first months of life affect long-term metabolic risk. Through networks of excellence such as the national SAMID/RICORS network, this clinical area has also led research on eating disorders, vitamin D deficiency and the multidisciplinary management of severe childhood obesity from a medical, metabolic and family perspective.
7. Recent Projects and New Frontiers
In recent years, the group has refined its research lines with highly targeted approaches covering different stages of life:
MELI-POP project: a multicentre clinical trial evaluating the long-term impact of the Mediterranean diet and physical activity on the early prevention of obesity in children aged 3 to 6 years.
CIRBAR project: a clinical study on the metabolic and muscular benefits of supervised strength-training programmes after bariatric surgery in patients with severe obesity.
RURALFRAIL project: research focused on older adults, analysing frailty and applying multicomponent exercise programmes to improve the functional capacity of people over 65 living in rural Aragon.
8. GENUD: NUTRI-GENUD and EXER-GENUD
Given the size, number of researchers and international reach the GENUD group has achieved over recent decades, it has been strategically divided into two specialised subgroups to streamline its management, strengthen its research lines and improve scientific efficiency. The EXER-GENUD subgroup (Exercise, Growth, Nutrition and Development), co-led by Dr José Antonio Casajús and Dr Germán Vicente, focuses on applied exercise science, physical fitness and inclusive health. The NUTRI-GENUD subgroup (Nutrition-Growth, Exercise, Nutrition and Development), co-led by Dr Luis Alberto Moreno Aznar and Dr Gerardo Rodríguez, focuses primarily on nutritional epidemiology, lifestyles and the prevention of obesity from early childhood. This organisational split ensures that GENUD remains at the forefront of public health research while preserving its original multidisciplinary essence.
