11/07/2018 - Press release
Researchers led by Emre Guney of the research programme on Biomedical Informatics (GRIB), a joint programme of Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), have developed a new computational method to reuse drugs that target biological pathways common to more than one disease. A significant percentage of marketed drugs are not effective in patients due to the complexity of the biological processes involved in diseases and genetic differences between people. Despite recent technological advances, the discovery of new effective treatments takes a long time and continues to be expensive. For this reason, the reuse of medicines, i.e., the use of existing drugs for other diseases, is a very interesting alternative to reduce the costs of drug development.
Més informació "A new computational method for exploring the reuse of drugs"
10/07/2018 - Institutional news
On June 8th, Dr Jordi Mestres, coordinator of the IMIM Systems Pharmacology Research Group, was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry of the United Kingdom. Achieving this status is an important milestone in a researcher's career as it indicates scientific quality and is one of the most important recognitions a chemist can receive. The Royal Society of Chemistry is a non-profit organisation that is more than 175 years old and has more than 54,000 members across the world. Its aim is to advance excellence in the chemical sciences, investing in the education of future generations, creating and maintaining standards, encouraging innovation, and advising governments.
Més informació "Jordi Mestres elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry"
Immunotherapy, the use of the patient's own immune system to attack tumour cells is the method chosen by the Hospital del Mar and its research centre, the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) in their search for new breast cancer treatments. They are looking in particular at triple negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive types, which, in addition, affects younger patients and is the breast tumour with the fewest therapeutic targets for oncologists. This commitment has received a strong boost thanks to the grant the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) has just awarded the project "LCOR orchestrates the differential IFN-a response and immunological properties of triple-negative breast cancer cells", led by Dr. Toni Celià-Terrassa, a researcher in the Molecular Therapy of Cancer group, directed by Dr. Joan Albanell, head of medical oncology at Hospital del Mar and director of the IMIM's Cancer Research programme.
Més informació "Immunotherapy for treating the most aggressive breast cancer"
07/06/2018 - General information
Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) continues to be a major public health challenge, accounting for about 20% of all natural deaths in industrialised countries. Although there has been a substantial decline in overall coronary heart disease mortality rates in the past 30 years, SCA rates have fallen to a lesser extent. Some 50 % of all cardiovascular deaths are caused by SCA, a condition in which the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. With survival rates ranging between 5 % and 20 %, there's a need to improve SCA prevention and treatment. To address this issue, a European public-private consortium is now working on the creation of a joint, harmonised database by analysing SCA victims and DNA samples, along with detailed clinical and medication use information. unded by H2020 Programme of the European Union, the team of scientists contributing to the ESCAPE-NET project, including the System Pharmacology group of GRIB (IMIM-UPF) led by Jordi Mestres, summarised the objectives of their research in the 'European Heart Journal'.
14/06/2018 - General information
On the 18th and until the 20th, the PRBB Consortium will replace all of the current phones of the IMIM for IP telephones with more features. During this change process there will be times when external and /or internal telephone connections will not work. We recommend that you communicate, whenever possible, via email.
Més informació "IMPORTANT: Telephone connection cuts from June 18 to update the system"
17/05/2018 - Institutional news
The two IMIM researchers, Lluís Espinosa and Anna Vert, have been chosen to edit a special edition of the journal Biomedicines, from the MDPI publishing house. Under the title Stem Cells and Cancer Therapeutics, it will focus, in the words of the publishers, "on understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling normal cells and stem cells related to cancer, as well as the tools available for studying them in vitro and in vivo." This issue will focus on how new technologies can be used in cancer therapies. The special edition will include around twelve articles by particularly renowned authors. Five of these articles can already be consulted in open format, including the paper "Mammary Stem Cells and Breast Cancer Stem Cells: Molecular Connections and Clinical Implications", authored by Dr. Toni Celià-Terrassa, a researcher from the IMIM's Cancer Research Programme.
19/04/2018 - Institutional news
The 3rd European Conference on Translational Bioinformatics (ECTB2018) was held on April 16th-17th at the premises of the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) with the attendance of more than 130 European scientists, developers, and entrepreneurs, interested in translating genomics and bioinformatics research into healthcare tools and services. The conference aimed to give the participants a unique experience and a forum for discussing fresh scientific results in the translational domain. The conference brought together world-leading scientists in the area which highlighted on their presentations the recent advances in information technologies that are facilitating translational research and precision medicine. Some of the topics addressed were Big Data integration and analysis, Personalized Medicine, Genome Sequencing initiatives, etc, delivered by scientists from Europe, Canada and the USA.
19/03/2018 - Press release
Dr. Rafael de la Torre, director of the Neurosciences research programme at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), is leading a clinical trial involving a paediatric population, the aim of which is to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a dietary preparation containing epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) – a natural compound found in green tea- on improved cognitive development in children, aged 6 to 12, with Down's syndrome, and which will also evaluate its effect on children with Fragile X syndrome. The paediatric clinical trials will take place simultaneously in 5 health centres: Hospital Niño Jesús (Madrid), Instituto Hispalense de Pediatria (Seville), Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla (Santander), Hospital del Mar ( Barcelona), and Institut Jérome Lejeune (Paris).
06/03/2018 - Press release
The Evolutionary Genomics research group at the IMIM, led by Mar Albà, has just published an article in the journal Molecular Ecology providing the results of a study that has identified which genes participate (change their expression) in the hibernation state of hairy-eared dwarf lemurs, which belong to the only group of primates that has the ability to hibernate. These small mammals store fats in their tails, allowing them to survive the months of shortage, and which they use as fuel during hibernation. Hibernation is a response to the lack of resources we normally associate with winter, but which can occur in other conditions of scarcity, such as in desert areas or, for example, during the dry season in Madagascar. “The genes involved in hibernation are present in almost all mammals, including humans. It is a question of when and how they are expressed that makes the phenomenon of hibernation possible. As they are primates, lemur genes are relatively similar to those in humans, so it is even more interesting to study this species”, explains José Luis Villanueva-Cañas, a researcher from the IMIM's Evolutionary Genomics group.
Més informació "First genetic study of primate hibernation in their natural environment"
23/01/2018 - Press release
The director of the Epidemiology and Public Health programme at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and CIBER Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP) researcher, Jordi Alonso, was commissioned by the World Mental Health to lead an international study into the adequacy of anxiety disorder treatment across the globe. The results, from a sample of more than 51,500 individuals from 21 different countries, reveals that 10% of people suffer anxiety. Of these, only 27.6% have received some type of treatment, and this was considered appropriate in only 9.8% of the cases. It is the first time a study has described the treatment gap in anxiety disorders at an international level. "It is estimated that anxiety disorders affect 10% of the global population. These are pathologies that tend to be chronic, comorbid, and associated with a significant disability. If we add to this the fact that in 2010 they cost a group of 30 European Union countries €74,400 million, it is clear that this is an important public health problem", explains Jordi Alonso.
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