11/02/2016 - Press release
People with anxiety disorders have an increased risk of suffering chronic diseases such as heart disease, chronic pain, and peptic ulcers. This is one of the conclusions of a new study published in JAMA Psychiatry, led by the University of Otago (New Zealand) and involving Dr Jordi Alonso, director of the Epidemiology and Public Health programme at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and a CIBERESP researcher. The study found that all kinds of mental health disorders, related to mood, anxiety, and impulse control, as well as substance use disorders, are associated with an increased risk of a wide range of chronic physical diseases. The researchers studied the relationship between mental disorders and ten diseases: arthritis, chronic pain, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, asthma, chronic lung disease, peptic ulcers, and cancer.
08/02/2016 - Press release
Researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) have found an epigenetic mechanism implicated in the regulation of blood sugar. The study, published in the journal Molecular Human Genetics, reveals that the methylation of the TXNIP gene is associated with diabetes mellitus type 2 and, in particular, average blood glucose levels. These results, replicated in two patient cohorts, could help to both identify patients at risk of developing diabetes and control treatment response, as well as generating possible future therapies for this disease, one of the major cardiovascular risk factors in the population. The work was coordinated by Carolina Soriano, from the Neurovascular research group at the IMIM, and Jordi Jiménez Conde, from the same group and a neurologist at the Hospital del Mar, in collaboration with the IMIM's Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Genetics group.
08/02/2016 - Institutional news
On February 4, to coincide with World Cancer Day, the AECC-Catalunya contra el Càncer, presented their Cancer Research Grants 2015 at the Drassanes Reials in Barcelona, in a ceremony attended by more than 400 people from the worlds of politics and business, as well as the general public. In this edition the AECC presented a total of €120,000 to six projects by emerging Catalan teams looking at colon cancer, leukaemia, brain tumours, gastrointestinal stromal tumours and prostate and bladder cancer. The winners include a project entitled: “Clinical implications of galectin-1 expression in genitourinary cancer: its role in diagnosis, prognosis and response prediction with immune check point inhibitors”, led by Pilar Navarro, coordinator of the Molecular Mechanisms of Tumorigenesis research group at the IMIM and Alejo Rodríguez-Vida, an oncologist at the Hospital del Mar
27/01/2016 - Press release
According to an epidemiological study carried out by researchers at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), increasing the money you spend on food is linked to a better quality diet, particularly increased consumption of fruit and vegetables, leading to a healthier weight and decreased risk of cardiometabolic diseases like obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular problems. The researchers monitored a group of 2181 Spanish men and women aged 25 to 74, all part of the REGICOR (Registre Gironí del Cor) programme, for a period of ten years. They measured their height and weight, and recorded dietary data obtained from a scientifically validated food frequency questionnaire. The average food cost was calculated using official government data.
Més informació "Spending more on food is associated with a healthier diet and weight"
22/12/2015 - Institutional news
Research director of the MAR Health Park of Barcelona who, associated with their research management role, will also have functions as director of the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM).
Més informació "Job position of Research director of the MAR Health Park (PSMAR) of Barcelona"
18/01/2016 - Press release
Researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) in collaboration with scientists from Pompeu Fabra University, the Pasteur Institute andPierre and Marie Curie University, have discovered a crucial neural mechanism that explains the process of nicotine reward and addiction. Nicotine, the principal psychoactive component of tobacco, is quickly absorbed through the nasal, oral and respiratory membranes and takes 7 seconds to reach the brain where the receptors are located. It is there where it acts on the central nervous system as well as the autonomic nervous system. This almost immediate relationship between the inhalation of the smoke and its effect at a cerebral level is one of the factors contributing to the highly addictive nature of nicotine. This is explained by the fact that the nicotine exerts its psychopharmacological effects by activating receptors that are very abundant in several specific regions of the brain, the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR).
Més informació "A novel brain mechanism for nicotine addiction"
11/01/2016 - Press release
Research just published in the journal Plos Genetics has found that gaining new genes during evolution is a much more frequent event than previously thought. It has been seen that there are hundreds of genes that might be unique to humans, and something similar occurs in chimpanzees. Some of these genes will be useful for the organism in question and the rest will disappear in time. The work was led by Mar Albà, an ICREA researcher at the Mar Institute of Medical Research (IMIM) and Jorge Ruiz-Orera, from the same group, together with researchers from Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG). For some time it was thought that all new genes originated from other genes, for example, from duplications of already existing genes. But recently it has been seen that some, the so-called de novo genes, originate in genomic regions that previously contained none. According to Mar Albà “This work shows that the formation of DNA motifs, through the accumulation of random mutations, would have been a determining factor in the emergence of new genes.” DNA motifs are elements that activate gene expression.
22/12/2015 - Press release
A study by the Cardiology Service's Heart Failure Unit at the Hospital del Mar and IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute) has demonstrated that patients with chronic heart failure (HF) who are telephonically monitored have better results with regard to relapse and rehospitalisation than patients that receive conventional on-site follow-up. For six months the researchers used an electronic platform to analyse the evolution of a group of telephonically monitored patients, who used videoconferencing to communicate with the healthcare team. According to the study published in the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, the group being monitored using telemedicine also involved a 3,546 euro reduction in average cost per patient compared to the control group, over the six months of follow-up.
01/12/2015 - General information
The co-existence of mental illness and psychoactive drug or other substance use problems — otherwise known as ‘comorbidity’ or ‘dual diagnosis’ — is an issue which has been on the radar of the EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) for over a decade. This agency aims to provide objective and reliable information concernint drugs and their consequences.
Més informació "New EMCDDA report explores combined mental health and substance use disorders"
03/11/2015 - Press release
A new integrated computational method helps predicting adverse drug reaction—which are often lethal—more reliably than with traditional computing methods. This improved ability to foresee the possible adverse effects of drugs may entail saving many lives in the future. The study that is being conducted by researchers from IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), Pompeu Fabra University, and the company Chemotargets, within the framework of the European eTOX project, was chosen for the cover of the journalChemical Research in Toxicology. Most computer tools employed today to detect possible adverse effects of compounds that are candidates for new medicines are based on detecting labile fragments in the drug's structure. These fragments can potentially transform to form reactive metabolites, which can have toxic properties. This is what is known as idiosyncratic toxicity and is a big headache for the pharmaceutical industry, as it tends to be detected in late development stages of the drug and even when it is already on the market, often causing the drug to be withdrawn.
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