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08/05/2025 - Institutional news

The Blood and Tissue Bank (BST) and the Hospital del Mar Research Institute join forces to collaborate on advanced therapy research

• Both institutions have signed a joint Research Program in Substances of Human Origin (SoHO) and Advanced Therapies for the next four years.

• The scientific director of the new collaboration program will be the current Research Director at the Blood and Tissue Bank, Luís Álvarez-Vallina.

• The objective of the collaboration is to strengthen the translation of scientific research into specific clinical applications and accelerate the arrival of new therapies to patients.

The Blood and Tissue Bank (BST) and the Hospital del Mar Research Institute have signed a collaboration agreement to combine efforts and resources, creating synergies and working closely together in the field of research, especially in advanced therapies. The goal is to facilitate their clinical application to accelerate their impact on patients.

The agreement, defined as the Joint Research Program in Substances of Human Origin (SoHO) and Advanced Therapies, will have an initial duration of 4 years and will be led by Luís Álvarez-Vallina, the new Research Director at the Blood and Tissue Bank.

Both institutions, leaders in biomedical research and therapeutic innovation, have set a triple objective: to promote integrated scientific activity, support competitive research projects (both public and private, national and international), and create clinical research units with the Clinical Research Program of the Spanish National Cancer Research Center, with which Álvarez-Vallina has been historically associated.

From left to right: Marta López, Luis Álvarez-Vallina, Joaquín Arribas, Anna Millán and Núria Gavaldà.

The collaboration includes the creation of a joint organizational structure and a strategic research plan. BST and the Hospital del Mar Research Institute are committed to providing the necessary human, financial, and facility resources for the execution of the Research Program, with agreements and funding to be defined as the projects are detailed. Thus, each party will contribute its own technical staff, researchers, research groups, doctors, students, and specialists for the development of the projects derived, with expertise in translational research, SoHO research, or Advanced Therapies, including gene therapies, cellular therapies, tissue therapies, RNA therapies, etc

Regarding facilities, both centers will also provide laboratories, spaces, rooms, and appropriate equipment, with access to available scientific and technical services such as the animal facility, freezing/Biobank platforms, Genomics, Proteomics, Flow Cytometry equipment, Confocal microscopy, Imaging, or clean rooms, among others.

The new Program Director, Luis Álvarez-Vallina, and the Director of the Hospital del Mar Research Institute, Joaquín Arribas López, highlighted the transformative potential of the initiative for the healthcare system. In Álvarez-Vallina's words: "This program strengthens our commitment to research and innovation in health, with a clear public service mission and social impact." For his part, Arribas pointed out that "institutional collaboration is key to advancing towards personalized and efficient medicine."

The agreement signed today formalizes and expands an already existing collaboration between two similar research institutions, aiming to join synergies, make the most of existing resources, and achieve scientific results that improve people's lives and are significant in the clinical field.

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