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).
19/12/2016 - Press release
A study directed by researchers from the UAB and IMIM are the first to reveal how pregnancy causes long-lasting alterations in brain structure, probably related to improving the mother’s ability to protect and interact with the child. The research was published in Nature Neuroscience. Pregnancy involves radical hormone surges and biological adaptations, but the effects on the brain are still unknown. In this study a team of researchers compared the structure of the brain of women before and after their first pregnancy. This is the first research to show that pregnancy involves long-lasting changes – at least for two years post-partum – in the morphology of a woman's brain. Using magnetic resonance imaging, the scientists have been able to show that the brains of women who have undergone a first pregnancy present significant reductions in grey matter in regions associated with social cognition.
Més informació "Pregnancy Leads to Changes in the Mother’s Brain"
07/06/2016 - Press release
A team of scientists led by doctors Rafael de la Torre at Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and Mara Dierssen at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) have shown that epigallocatechin gallate together with a cognitive stimulation protocol, might improve some cognitive domains in individuals with Down’s syndrome. The results of the phase 2 study will be published on 6th June in the prestigious journal The Lancet Neurology. The findings suggest that participants who had received the treatment had better scores in the visual memory recognition and inhibition tasks, and improvement in adaptive behaviour than those in the control group (placebo and cognitive training). Though not a cure, this is the first time that a treatment has shown some effectiveness in this syndrome, and it opens the door to new research geared towards treating what was believed to be orphan of treatment.
Més informació "Clinical trial opens new avenues for pharmacological therapy in Down’s syndrome"
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"
11/12/2012 - Press release
An international project with the participation of researchers from IMIM has, for the first time ever, deciphered the mechanism by which a substance called anophelin binds to an enzyme (thrombin) involved in the process of blood coagulation. This discovery opens the door to, on the one hand, designing a new generation of anticoagulant drugs with a totally different functioning to current ones and, on the other hand, fighting against the spreading of malaria by designing inhibitors for this substance.
Més informació "New anticoagulant discovered based on the same used by malaria vectors to feed on"
08/05/2012 - Press release
A group of researchers from the IMIM (Hospital del Mar Research Institute) and from the INAD (Hospital del Mar Neuropsychiatry and Addictions Institute) has participated in an international study aiming to give a general overview at a chemical, pharmacological and behavioural level of a recently appeared new chemical compound, according to the Recreational Drugs European Network, as a new abused drug: methoxetamine (MXE).
Més informació "Internet and new drugs: a challenge for Public Health"
14/02/2011 - Press release
The 13th National Award for Research in Sports Medicine, awarded by the University of Oviedo and sponsored by Cajastur for the best research work in 2010, has been given to the work presented by the IMIM (Hospital del Mar Research Institute) in Barcelona.
10/09/2010 - Press release
A worldwide network of 22 scientists, among them Jordi Peña, a researcher at the Research Group in Behavioral Neurology and Dementia at IMIM and neurologist at the Hospital del Mar, has just published a large study that for the first time provides clear evidence on the effectiveness of Non-pharmacological Therapies in Alzheimer’s disease.
02/11/2009 - Press release
A team of student researchers and interns from the Municipal Institute of Medical Research (IMIM-Hospital del Mar) and the Foundation CIM will conduct a scientific experiment aboard three parabolic flights scheduled by the ESA, on the 3, 4 and 5 November. The experiment intends to improve medical treatment for astronauts through a better understanding of the drug absorption mechanisms in diseases such as cancer and AIDS, will take on board.
Més informació "Students will experiment in microgravity on board of European Space Agency Flights"
23 December 2008 - Press release
Researchers from the Childhood and Environmental Research Group of the Municipal Institute for Medical Research (IMIM-Hospital del Mar), a group that is connected to the Paediatrics Service at Hospital del Mar, have used meconium or newborns' first excrement to establish whether the mother consumed drugs during the last two trimesters of pregnancy
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