16/10/2020 - General information
Dr Robert Güerri, section chief of the Infectious Diseases Service at Hospital del Mar and a researcher in the Infectious Pathology and Antimicrobial Research Group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), has received a Young Researcher Award from the SI 2020 Symposium, organised by the pharmaceutical company Janssen. The aim of this initiative is to promote the investigative work of young researchers, whose careers have made significant scientific and technical contributions in the field of HIV. The symposium, which should have been held in March, had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Més informació "SI 2020 Symposium Young Researcher Award presented to Dr. Robert Güerri"
15/10/2020 - Press release
They believe that the treatment currently used in many cases, based solely on short-acting bronchodilators like the well-known Ventolin, may increase the risk of severe asthma attacks. This is revealed by a study published in the journal Archivos de Bronconeumología. They advocate the use of inhaled corticoids, which is also the treatment recommended by the international Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA). Asthma is increasingly prevalent and affects 5-10% of the general population. Unfortunately, the decline in associated mortality has slowed in recent years. In the current context, characterised by the COVID-19 epidemic, there is no evidence that suffering asthma implies a more severe form of COVID-19.
14/10/2020 - Press release
Chemotargets, a global leader in predictive analytics solutions for the pharma and biotech sector, has appointed Dr. Scott Boyer as new CEO with the aim to consolidate its transition from a software business to a key player in the biotech sector. Dr Boyer joins Chemotargets from Swedish drug development company Klaria, where he has been CEO/CSO since 2015 and will continue as a member of the Board of Directors and as a scientific advisor. Prior to joining Klaria, he was Chief Scientist at AstraZeneca (Sweden), with global responsibility for molecular and investigational toxicology across the company, and a member of the company's senior management team. Prior to AstraZeneca, Dr. Boyer was a senior scientist at Pfizer Central Research in the US.
Més informació "Dr. Scott Boyer joins Chemotargets as new CEO"
08/10/2020 - Press release
Doing 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity (fast walking or dancing, for example) or 75 minutes of vigorous activity (running or other sports) a week, as recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO), reduces your mortality risk by 16%. At the same time, cardiovascular mortality risk drops by 27% and cardiovascular event risk falls by 12%. This is highlighted in a study published by the Revista Española de Cardiología led by doctors from Hospital del Mar and researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), the University of Vic-Central Catalonia (UVic- UCC), and the CIBERCV and CIBERESP. The work also reveals that doing three to five times more physical activity than the recommended amount maximises the benefit.
Més informació "Following physical activity recommendations can reduce mortality risk by 16%"
07/10/2020 - Covid-19
Doctors from the Cardiology Service at Hospital del Mar together with researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and CIBERESP have identified two cardiac damage markers as elements for diagnosing risk in patients suffering from COVID-19. 1 in 3 patients analysed in the study had at least one of these indicators in their blood. Mortality and the need for mechanical ventilation was higher in these patients than in those who did not have it, almost 40% compared to less than 10%. 80% of the patients who died had elevated indicators of cardiac damage. This is the most extensive study published on the subject so far, with 872 patients analysed. The article has been published in the Revista Española de Cardiología. Two cardiac damage markers can be used as predictors for the risk of complications in patients diagnosed with COVID-19. This has been revealed by the most ambitious study carried out to date in this field, led by doctors and researchers from the Hospital del Mar and the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), as well as CIBER Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP). The paper has just been published by the Revista Española de Cardiología.
Més informació "Two cardiac damage markers identified as predictors of risk in COVID-19 patients"
02/10/2020 - General information
Benign breast diseases (BBD), which are non-cancerous disorders of the breast, such as lumps, are known to increase the chances of subsequent breast cancer. Now a team of Hospital del Mar researchers have found that the way BBD is detected as part of a national screening programme is an indication of which are more likely to become cancerous. The findings from a team led by Dr. Xavier Castells, head of the epidemiology department at the Hospital del Mar and researcher of the Epidemiology and Evaluation research group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), was presented at the 12th European Breast Cancer Conference on Saturday 3rd. BBD detected on the first occasion a woman attends for breast screening (usually at the age of 50 in Spain and many other European countries with national screening programmes) is classified as "prevalent" BBD, whereas those detected on subsequent visits, which occur every two years in Spain, are classified as "incident" BBD
01/10/2020 - General information
Each year, around 20 million European citizens are affected from depression. Depression is a serious illness which impacts on all aspects of life, including work. While Small and Medium Sized enterprises particularly face substantial economic losses due to the global impact of COVID-19, the MENTUPP consortium anticipates, that capacities for mental health promotion and provision in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will be even more limited in the future. A second COVID-19 wave might further impact negatively on people affected by depression. This is why action on occupational mental health is urgently needed. Resources for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises "Limited capacities for mental health promotion and provision of adequate occupational mental health programmes for employees are a concern shared by most decision-makers in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)", says Prof. Ella Arensman, Coordinator of the MENTUPP project. In the EU, these businesses contribute to more than 90% of the economy. Particularly, SMEs in the construction, healthcare and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sectors have been associated with higher risk of mental health difficulties compared to other sectors. COVID-19 has significant short-term and long-term effects on the mental health people working in these sectors.
Més informació "EU-funded Mental Health Promotion and Intervention in Occupational Settings"
15/09/2020 - Press release
The research group of GPCR Drug Discovery at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, has deciphered how nature adjusts the response of the human cell to abundant extracellular stimuli (e.g., smell, taste, light, hormones, etc.). When a cell receives an extracellular stimulus, it initiates a signaling process that can result in major physiological changes. This process is mediated by cell membrane proteins such as G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Depending on the stimulus, those receptors regulate cell activity through different molecular mechanisms. Extracellular stimulation of GPCRs leads to its activation and subsequently to the phosphorylation of its long intracellular tail. Interestingly, there are multiple phosphorylation patterns of the receptor tail - each of them linked to a specific signaling response. The phosphorylation code is read by intracellular proteins known as β-arrestins. In response, they typically silence the receptor and modulate intracellular kinases, which have a global impact on cell behaviour related to gene expression, cell survival and cell death. "Until now, the phosphorylation code and the involvement of arrestins in deciphering it has been an open question" explains Dr. Selent. "We have discovered the underlying molecular mechanism of how arrestin reads and translates a specific phosphorylation pattern into a cellular response" she adds.
Més informació "Decryption of a molecular code that regulates the behavior of the cells"
03/09/2020 - Press release
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded Dr. Arnau Busquets García, a Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), with a prestigious ERC Starting Grant. This recognition includes 1.5 million euros to develop a 5-year project. Grants from the ERC, which are part of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, are the main source of European funding for research excellence. They support highly innovative projects led by outstanding and internationally renowned researchers, with the aim of helping them to build their own teams and carry out pioneering research in Europe. In this year's edition, 3272 applications were submitted and 436 grants were awarded, for a total of 677 million euros. The recipients have 40 different nationalities and the projects will be developed in 25 different EU member states. The countries awarded the most grants are Germany (88 grants), the UK (62), the Netherlands (42), and France (38). Spain secured a total of 23 grants, 7 of which are going to Catalan research centers.
18/08/2020 - Institutional news
Dra. Jana Selent, coordinator of the GPCR drug discovery group, has been selected as the featured author of the month for the August edition in the journal Nature Methods. Recently, the Group of Dra. Selent published his latest article GPCRmd uncovers the dynamics of the 3D-GPCRome in this journal, where she presents a new tool to study one of the key elements in cell signaling, G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) which are the target of almost 40% of current drugs. This tool, the GPCRmd platform, will help improve our understanding of the function of these receptors, which are critical for transmitting signals to the interior of cells. The design of this tool has been made possible thanks to a consortium of researchers from 23 different institutions of 10 different European countries and the United States, led by the group of Dr. Jana Selent and with important contributions from researchers of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland and the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Més informació "Nature Methods selects Jana Selent as the featured author of the month for August"
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