05/06/2020 - Press release
Detecting the best research talents and providing these people with financial, structural and stability means advancing in cancer care via translational research projects that improve treatment and diagnosis through innovation with clinical application. This is the ambitious goal of the innovative and cutting-edge I CRIS Research Programmes promoted by CRIS against cancer, which have already received their first awards thanks to a meticulous evaluation and selection process led by a prestigious committee of international experts. Over the next five years, the three winning projects will focus on colorectal cancer (the second-ranked cancer in terms of deaths) prostate cancer (diagnosed in 1.3 million people each year), and immunotherapy, a highly innovative type of treatment that is changing the outlook of many cancers. "Research is our life and only through research are we going to find a cure for cancer. With the CRIS Research Programmes we want to detect the best research talent and provide these people with financial and work-related peace of mind. We want to discover and support the Nobel Prize winners of tomorrow and these first CRIS Programmes are just the beginning. In the next edition we will double the number of winners, underlining our commitment to research in spite of the current situation we are experiencing",explains Diego Megía, president of CRIS against cancer.
Més informació "Dr. Clara Montagut, awarded a I CRIS Programme of Excellence in Cancer Research"
Anna Bigas, CIBER Cancer (CIBERONC) researcher at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), was appointed the new Scientific Director of CIBERONC at the CIBER Standing Committee meeting held on March 26th. Anna Bigas takes over from Joaquín Arribas, who has held this position since CIBERONC was set up in 2016. The new Scientific Director, who has already been involved in coordinating two CIBERONC programmes, Mechanisms of Tumour Progression and Training and Mobility, is the second woman to head up one of CIBER's thematic scientific areas, after the appointment of Marina Pollán as director of CIBER Epidemiology and Public Health. Dr. Bigas highlighted "the enormous scientific potential of the groups comprising CIBERONC to collaboratively address major challenges in oncology, as has already been demonstrated on several occasions. At such a critical time as the present, we need to make even more effort to unite all possible human and economic efforts to progress in the fight against cancer. In this sense, CIBERONC is able to provide unique and valuable support, making this advance a reality".
Més informació "Anna Bigas, new scientific director of CIBER Cancer"
12/03/2020 - Press release
Researchers from the Stem Cell and Cancer Group at the Hospital del Mar Institute for Medical Research (IMIM) have led a study in which they have been able to determine the role of two molecules, Dll4 and Notch, and the importance of their relationship in the generation of blood stem cells. This is a very important step in the search to find a viable method for generating this type of cell in the laboratory. The study, which included researchers from the universities of Tel Aviv, Edinburgh, the Sorbonne in Paris, and Cambridge, has been published in The EMBO Journal. The group that led the study is one of the few Spanish teams working in this field, and for years they have been making breakthroughs in their research into blood stem cells and generating these in the laboratory, in the field of regenerative medicine. Right now, "We can make erythrocytes, platelets, a lot of blood products in the lab, but we have never been able to make a cell that has the characteristics of blood stem cells", explains Dr. Anna Bigas, coordinator of the group and first author of the study. Being able to find a method for generating this type of cell in the laboratory would allow patients with diseases like leukaemia, or certain genetic pathologies that affect the blood, and who do not have a compatible donor, to receive a haematopoietic stem cell transplant. In many cases this is the only treatment possible.
Més informació "Key piece in generating blood stem cells in the laboratory discovered"
16/01/2020 - Institutional news
The global organisation Worldwide Cancer Research, based in Scotland, will fund a three-year breast cancer metastasis study by Toni Celià-Terrassa, from the IMIM's Molecular Cancer Therapy Research Group. The project aims to explore the dynamics and behaviour of tumour populations that undergo epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) during breast cancer metastasis. For this purpose, advanced 3D microscopy and single-cell transcriptomic techniques will be used in conjunction with computational biology analysis.
Més informació "Worldwide Cancer Research sponsors a breast cancer metastasis project at the IMIM"
23/08/2019 - Press release
Researchers from the Molecular Cancer group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and doctors from Hospital del Mar, have demonstrated the effectiveness of a drug for treating metastatic bladder cancer in patients who did not respond to the usual treatment. The preliminary results of an ongoing clinical trial show that TAK-228, a mTORC1/2 protein inhibitor, can stop the progression of the disease. Four of the seven patients in the trial showed positive results. The trial also involved Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona, Hospital Universitari Parc Taulí in Sabadell, Clínica Universitaria in Navarre, and Hospital General Universitario in Elche.
Més informació "Effectiveness of a new bladder cancer treatment demonstrated"
10/07/2019 - Press release
A study led by researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), has determined, for the first time, the importance of a cell mechanism that may be key to treating metastatic tumours. The work has demonstrated the role a protein, kinase IKKα, plays in the ability of tumour cells to repair themselves. This is a key factor in treatment resistance and tumour spread. The research has been published in the journal Molecular Cell. The researchers analysed the role of this protein, activated by mutations of the BRAF and KRAS oncogenes, present in the majority of the most aggressive tumours. The function of this protein is to facilitate DNA-repair in tumour cells after they have been damaged by chemotherapy, making them more resistant to the action of these drugs. This is key for the treatment approach, since this new study demonstrates, conclusively, that combining a BRAF oncogene inhibitor with chemotherapy deactivates and kills the tumour.
Més informació "Mechanism determined for treating the most aggressive tumours"
29/10/2018 - Press release
The study, published in the journal Cancer Research, shows the pivotal role of the enzyme USP27X in the control of the proliferation, invasion and formation of breast cancer metastasis and opens new pathways to the development of anti-tumour drugs. A team of researchers from the Cancer programme of the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), led by Drs Victor M. Diaz, of Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and Antonio García de Herreros, of the IMIM, has identified a key enzyme in cancer development called USP27X.
Més informació "Discovery of a key protein in tumour metastasis"
02/08/2018 - Press release
Inhibiting the Jagged 1 protein in mice prevents the proliferation and growth of colon and rectal tumours. What is more, this approach to the disease permits the removal of existing tumours. This is the conclusion of a study led by the Molecular Mechanisms of Cancer and Stem Cells research group from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), directed by Dr Lluís Espinosa, who is also a member of CIBERONC (the Network Centre for Biomedical Research into Cancer), in collaboration with the Pathological Anatomy and Medical Oncology Units at Hospital del Mar, and the IDIBELL-Catalan Oncology Institute. The work has been published in Nature Communications. The researchers took tumours from patients and then implanted them into mice in order to analyse the role of this protein in cancer cell proliferation. Jagged 1 is essential for cancer cells due to its role in activating the so-called Notch cell-signalling pathway. Generally speaking, Notch inhibits cell differentiation, in other words, a cell's ability to become a mature cell that can no longer proliferate. In the case of colorectal tumours, the activation of this signalling pathway favours their proliferation and growth.
Més informació "Key piece identified for slowing a colorectal cancer subtype"
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.
03/11/2017 - Press release
Dr. Joaquim Bellmunt, director of the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and Associate Professor at the University of Harvard, at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, is one of the first authors of a new international study that has mapped genome of bladder cancer. As part of the TCGA project (The Cancer Genome Atlas), the researchers have reported their final analysis of 412 tumour samples, providing the most accurate genetic description to date of this type of cancer. This will enable the analysis of new personalised treatment hypotheses for this disease. The study was published in the journal Cell. Dr. Bellmunt has stated that thanks to this work, we now "have a much broader perspective on the different varieties of urinary bladder cancer and its genetic alterations". Even so, the head of the IMIM stresses that "it is necessary to continue researching the best treatments and confirm hypothesised new treatment methods."
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