21/03/2021 - General information
March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day and we are joining in by launching the "21 reasons to collaborate with science" campaign. The goal is to promote clinical research into people with Down's syndrome, to encourage them to get involved in the clinical studies that are currently being carried out and, in this way, to help improve the health and quality of life of these people. Through the 21 reasons campaign, the team of Dr. Rafael de la Torre, director of the Neurosciences research programme at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, wants to raise awareness and encourage people with Down syndrome to get involved in the studies they are conducting. According to Dr. de la Torre, "The therapeutic approach to these people, given their genetic features, has been quite specific, and the more knowledge we have, the more we will be able to adjust the therapy to their needs. Certain medical practices should also be studied in individuals with this syndrome."
21/03/2021 - General information
Down syndrome (DS) is the most common chromosomal abnormality in children leading to lifelong intellectual disability. Over one million people in the EU and US have DS, and its prevalence has increased in the last ten years. Thanks to significant advances in medical and social care, the life expectancy of individuals with DS has increased greatly, so that many of them reach even the age of 60-70. DS causes lifelong cognitive dysfunction, which results in important negative consequences for these individuals, their families and society. Despite the heavier social burden and the greater medical needs linked to this intellectual disability, there isn't an approved therapy for DS-related cognitive dysfunction yet. Furthermore, though there are specific cognitive screening tests designed for individuals with DS, no official guidelines have been developed to assess their cognitive deficits or their impact on quality of life of DS individuals and their families.
10/03/2021 - Covid-19
MINDCOVID, a project led by the Research Group on Health Services of the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) presents its new website. It is a statewide project, in which more than 20 research groups from 6 autonomous communities collaborate, and its objective is to study the mental health of healthcare workers and other essential groups, as well as in patients with COVID-19 and also in a sample of the Spanish general population. MINDCOVID aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of the impact on mental health of the current outbreak of COVID-19 in Spain, and to be a follow-up project to monitor mental health changes over time in the groups studied. On the project's website you will find all the necessary information about the project, the team of professionals and researchers who collaborate with it, as well as information on the latest publications, questionnaires, reports, documentation on the protocol and the latest news and advances in research being conducted.
09/03/2021 - Press release
People living with a patient undergoing an intensive weight loss treatment also benefit from this therapy. This has been demonstrated by a team of researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM-Hospital del Mar) along with doctors from Hospital del Mar and the CIBER on the Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERObn), in collaboration with IDIAPJGol, the Pere Virgili Health Research Institute (IISPV), IDIBELL, IDIBAPS and the Sant Joan de Reus University Hospital. The study has been published in the journal International Journal of Obesity. The study analysed data from 148 family members of patients included in the weight loss and lifestyle programme PREDIMED-Plus (PREVencióDIetaMEDiterranea Plus) over a two-year period. The researchers analysed whether these people also indirectly benefited from the programme, as they were not enrolled in the study and did not receive any direct treatment.
04/03/2021 - Covid-19
Administering zinc supplements to covid-19 patients with low levels of this element may be a strategy to reduce mortality and recovery time. At the same time, it could help to prevent risk groups, like the elderly, from suffering the worst effects of the disease. These are the findings of a study by physicians and researchers from the Hospital del Mar, Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), led by Dr. Robert Güerri, a physician at the Infectious Diseases Service of Hospital del Mar, which has just been published in the journal Nutrients. The study analysed the zinc levels of 249 adult patients treated at the centre between 9 March and 1 April 2020, with an average age of 65 years. The most common symptoms presented at the time of admission were fever, cough and dyspnea.
Més informació "Administering zinc to covid-19 patients could help towards their recovery"
26/02/2021 - Press release
HDL cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) or good cholesterol is associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease as it transports cholesterol deposited in the arteries to the liver to be eliminated. This contrasts with the so-called bad cholesterol, LDL (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol), which causes cholesterol to accumulate in the arteries and increases cardiovascular risk. Although drugs that lower bad cholesterol reduce cardiovascular risk, those that raise good cholesterol have not proven effective in reducing the risk of heart disease. This paradox has called into question the relationship between good cholesterol and cardiovascular risk, and researchers are now studying the characteristics of these HDL or good cholesterol particles.
18/02/2021 - Covid-19
The Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), Hospital del Mar, the University of California-Davis and the University of Texas have launched a clinical trial to analyse how useful a food supplement can be for preventing the worst side effects of COVID-19. The study is looking at bovine-derived immunoglobulins, which have been shown in animal models to reduce the inflammation caused by infection, progression to more severe forms of the disease, and post-COVID syndrome. The first patients participating in the Randomized Open-Label Clinical Study Evaluating the Impact of EnteraGam, a Nutritional Intervention containing Bovine Plasma-Derived Immunoglobulin CoNcentrate, on Clinical Outcomes In People with COVID19 (PICNIC Study) are already taking two daily doses of this supplement. Dr Robert Güerri, principal investigator in the trial, member of the Infectious Pathology and Antimicrobial Research Group at the IMIM-Hospital del Mar, and section head of the Infectious Diseases Service at Hospital del Mar, explains that "The aim of the treatment is to sequester and help eliminate the virus from one of its main reservoirs in the body, the gut."
Més informació "Immunoglobulin clinical trial launched to prevent COVID-19 side effects"
16/02/2021 - General information
Researchers of the Research Programme on Biomedical Informatics (GRIB) from UPF and Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) have identified behavioural and linguistic changes in tweets in Spanish published by users suffering from depression and who are taking medication to treat this disease. Their work has been published in Journal of Medical Internet Research and was led by Ferran Sanz; with Angela Leis and Francesco Ronzano as first authors, who conducted the work together with Miguel Angel Mayer and Laura I Furlong, all from the Integrative Biomedical Informatics research group. Depression is one of the most widespread mental illnesses. According to the World Health Organization, it affects more than 322 million people of all ages and is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide.
10/02/2021 - General information
Only 30% of researchers in the world are women and about 30% of all students choose higher education in the field of science. In the case of the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, 51% of researchers are women, but there is still a long way to go. Historically, the role of women in the field of science has been left in the background. With exceptions, the work of female scientists has been overlooked, ignored, or attributed to their male peers. This was reported by Matilda Joslyn Gage, the inspirer of the #NoMoreMatildas.campaign. But even today, the role of women in research still needs to be vindicated. IMIM and Hospital del Mar are once again promoting this 2021, marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, the #SheInspiredMe campaign, in which researchers, doctors and nurses explain which women have been their source. of inspiration to engage in research and to move forward. A vindication of female talent that we want to extend to everyone, encouraging you to record your own videos and post your photos using the hashtag #SheInspiredMe.
Més informació "International Day of Women and Girls in Science- February 11"
09/02/2021 - General information
Dr. Bigas has joined as Deputy Director of Preclinical Research at the Josep Carreras Institute, maintaining her relationship with the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), where she leads the Stem Cells and Cancer group. The new responsibility that Dr. Bigas assumes will serve to enhance coordination between all groups in the institute that do basic and translational research, seeking synergies between them and optimizing their research, as well as to enhance the existing collaboration between the professionals of our institute and those of the IMIM. In the last ten years, as head of the Stem Cells and Cancer group, she has studied the molecular and physiological processes of stem cells in different tissues, in order to draw similarities with the appearance and progression of cancerous processes. In particular, her research focuses on the study of hematopoietic stem cells, responsible for the formation of blood cells, in order to understand the process of leukemia and develop strategies to fight against this disease.Currently, her research group is working on the identification of epigenetic and gene expression profiles, which allow discovering new therapeutic targets not yet exploited clinically.
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