17/04/2013 - Press release
The Association for International Cancer Research (AICR) has granted Dr. Anna Bigas, coordinator of the IMIM stem cells and cancer research group, 199,867 GBP (231,491 euros) for the three year project “Notch1 and B-Catenin Crosstalk in T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia”, and Dr. Sandra Peiró, investigator for the IMIM epithelial-mesenchymal transition in tumor development research group, 167,495 GBP (193,955 euros) for the project “Heterochromatin reorganization during the EMT process is controlled by Snail1 transcription factor” also due to take place over three years. AICR is a charitable organisation which has for the past 32 years provided funding for investigators with high level cancer research projects, regardless of their country, in order to support basic or translational research into the causes, mechanisms, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cancer. The Association has a Scientific Advisory Committee which completes a two-yearly selection of projects using strict quality criteria, as only 7 – 8 % of all applications are selected. It is currently supporting 182 ongoing projects around the world.
20/03/2013 - Press release
An international study involving Dr. Ana Giménez Arnau, a dermatologist at the Hospital del Mar and researcher with the group conducting research on inflammatory dermatological diseases at the IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute) has concluded that a drug normally used to treat severe bronchial asthma caused by allergies (Omalizumab) rapidly eliminates the symptoms of spontaneous chronic urticaria, a development that it is expected will significantly improve the quality of life of chronic urticaria sufferers. Spontaneous chronic urticaria, one of the most common skin diseases, consists of an abrupt reaction that results in hives or stains of different shapes and sizes on the surface of the skin that grow and produce a very intense itch. Sufferers can develop dozens of hives each day for months or years. When the condition persists for more than 6 weeks, it is referred to as chronic urticaria and can last between approximately 5 and 10 years, adversely affecting the quality of life of the sufferer in both physical and emotional terms. The research, which has consisted of an international Phase III clinical trial conducted across several centres of research, has run for 7 months and involved 323 patients from different countries. These patients have an average age of 42 and for the most part are women (76%), a description that accurately reflects the profile of patients with chronic urticaria.
Més informació "A step forward in the treatment of chronic urticaria"
26/02/2013 - Press release
The Patient-Reported Outcomes (PRO) have become significant health and quality of life indicators in clinical and epidemiological research. The health reported by patients has such an important predictive power as mortality, services demand and health costs. BiblioPRO is the first virtual library in the world specialized in these health-related quality of life instruments, the PROs, in Spanish, classified and documented following a conceptual and rigorous classification form. It includes instruments designed originally in Spanish, as well as cultural adaptations developed by Spain and Latin America, because most of these instruments have been carried out in English-speaking countries. BiblioPRO has been developed by the research group on health services of IMIM, who have been the organizers of the I Jornada Científica BiblioPRO
14/02/2013 - Press release
The vice-chancellors of three Catalan universities and representatives of ten biological and biomedical research institutes, together with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) and BioCat, this morning signed an agreement to create Bioinformatics Barcelona (BiB), a platform which it is hoped will turn the Barcelona area into an international point of reference in the field of bioinformatics through cooperation between universities, centres of research, and other public and private entities.
05/02/2013 - Press release
The research group has a long experience in the field of addictions, in the 90s established at the Hospital del Mar one of the first metadone prescribing and dispensing programmes integrated into a drug treatment center, being a national and international reference in the implementation of this treatment. Spain’s provision of methadone maintenance treatment for heroin dependence, combined with the distribution of sterile injecting equipment and access to treatment for AIDS, has led to a turnaround in the country’s HIV epidemic, according to a study published this month in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. Spain’s experience in this area is relevant to other countries where illicit drug injection is a common problem, such as those in eastern Europe and central, southern and eastern Asia
Més informació "Heroin dependence treatment reduces HIV infections in Spain"
31/01/2013 - Press release
Researchers from the group on stem cells and cancer at IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute) have deciphered one of the gene regulation circuits which would make it possible to generate hematopoietic blood cells, i.e. blood tissue stem cells. This finding is essential to generate these cells in a laboratory in the future, a therapy that could benefit patients with leukaemia or other diseases who need a transplant and who, in many cases, do not have a compatible donor. The study was developed over 4 years and consisted in performing a large number of experiments with the collaboration of groups from Japan, Holland and the USA. On the one hand, researchers identified the mechanism regulating the gene GATA2 in hematopoietic stem cells of a mouse embryo and, on the other hand, they identified DNA sequences regulating this gene; i.e. the sequences of gene GATA2 where the Notch protein and the repressor HES-1 bind.
24/01/2013 - Press release
Researchers participating in the REGICOR Study (Girona Heart Registry), with the participation of IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute) from Barcelona, the Josep Trueta Hospital, the Blanes Hospital and IDIAP Jordi Gol from Girona (Primary Healthcare Research Institute) have carried out a study to assess the impact of the partial smoke-free legislation passed in 2006 on the incidence of acute myocardial infarction in the province of Girona and observed it has dropped 11%. This decrease has been noticed especially among women, population aged between 65 and 74, and among non-smokers. Researchers analysed data from 3,703 infarctions occurred in Girona between the years 2002 and 2008 and studied whether the number of infarctions had dropped during the period 2006-2008 (after the implementation of the law) compared to the data from the period running from 2002 to 2004 (before the law was in place).
11/12/2012 - Press release
An international project with the participation of researchers from IMIM has, for the first time ever, deciphered the mechanism by which a substance called anophelin binds to an enzyme (thrombin) involved in the process of blood coagulation. This discovery opens the door to, on the one hand, designing a new generation of anticoagulant drugs with a totally different functioning to current ones and, on the other hand, fighting against the spreading of malaria by designing inhibitors for this substance.
Més informació "New anticoagulant discovered based on the same used by malaria vectors to feed on"
04/12/2012 - Press release
Bioinformaticians at IMIM and UPF have used molecular simulation techniques to explain a specific step in the maturation of the HIV virions, essential in understanding how the virus replicates. These results, which have been published in the latest edition of PNAS, could be crucial to the design of future antiretrovirals.The work has been carried out using GPUGRID.net, a voluntary distributed computing platform leveraging GPU accelerators to deliver “virtual supercomputing” performance.
Més informació "Crucial step in AIDS virus maturation simulated for first time"
20/11/2012 - Press release
Exposure to dioxins during pregnancy is associated with endocrine-disrupting effects in male infants. Genitalia distances that normally are longer in males than females, were reduced among male newborns whose mothers had higher exposure to dioxins. This is revealed in a study of 700 pregnant women and newborns from Greece and Spain.
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