Hospital del Mar Research Institute Hospital del Mar Research Institute

News

  • 27/05/2020 - General information

    Grant from the Spanish Transplant Society for a study by the Nephrology Service

    The Spanish Transplant Society has awarded the SET 2020 grant to intensify the research activity of Dr. María José Pérez Sáez, a consultant in the Nephrology Service and a researcher at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM). It is the only grant of this type that the organisation will award this year. The 30,000 euro grant will enable Dr. Pérez Sáez to work on one of the research projects currently underway in the department and IMIM, looking at fragility in the kidney transplant waiting list. The study of fragility in candidates for kidney transplants was launched by the Hospital del Mar's Nephrology Service in 2016, and currently has data from more than 500 patients. After an initial observational phase, in which the data collected will be analysed prospectively, two more phases have been designed: to biochemically characterise the fragile patient's phenotype, for which a biobank of samples has been set up; and a final intervention phase, with a pre-habilitation clinical trial in these patients while they are awaiting a transplant.

    Més informació "Grant from the Spanish Transplant Society for a study by the Nephrology Service"

  • 25/05/2020 - Press release

    Alliance between the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute and Chemotargets to accelerate the design of new cancer therapies

    The company Chemotargets -based in the Barcelona Science Park and a global leader in the development of computational platforms for the design, optimization and safety evaluation of drugs- has signed a strategic agreement with the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) in order to accelerate research projects for the discovery and development of new oncological therapies that respond to important unmet medical needs. This public-private partnership will establish a framework for collaboration that promotes the creation of synergies between the IMIM experience in the identification of new therapeutic targets in emerging fields of cancer biology and the Chemotargets expertise in drug discovery and development. This initiative will include the use of cutting-edge computational technologies developed specifically to rapidly design drug candidates acting on new mechanisms of action or directed to targets that are difficult to address and for which no identified drugs currently exist.

    Més informació "Alliance between the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute and Chemotargets to accelerate the design of new cancer therapies"

  • 20/05/2019 - Covid-19

    MIND/COVID, a project studying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, kicks off

    The nationwide MIND/COVID study, headed up by researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and Hospital del Mar, is one of the few projects funded so far by the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) of the Ministry of Science and Technology. The aim is to study the mental health of healthcare workers and other key groups, as well as COVID-19 patients and a sample of the general Spanish population. Natural disasters such as severe hurricanes, floods or earthquakes, and major epidemic outbreaks -such as SARS, MERS or Ebola- lead to an increase in acute stress, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and other mental health problems.  This impact can affect the most vulnerable populations in particular, and lead to the emergence of mental disorders and addictions. Healthcare workers are a vulnerable population because of the risk of contagion and the enormous workload involved in trying to manage the disease.

    Més informació "MIND/COVID, a project studying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, kicks off"

  • 18/05/2020 - Covid-19

    The version 7.0 of DisGeNET is now available and includes the creation of a new resource for COVID-19

    The GRIB Integrative Biomedical Informatics group (IMIM-UPF) has launched a new version of DisGeNET (version 7.0, May 8, 2020), which contains more than 1 million associations between 21,000 genes and 30,000 diseases, and 350,000 associations involving more than 190,000 genomic variants. All the data sources have been updated including the information automatically extracted by text mining of the literature. In addition, a new resource focused on COVID-19 has also been created. DisGeNET is a public knowledge management platform that offers information on genes and genomic variants associated with human diseases, which is obtained by integrating data from more than a dozen public resources and the scientific literature. DisGeNET contains one of the most comprehensive collections of genes and variants associated with human diseases that is currently available and is a resource for sharing and exchanging information recommended by the ELIXIR project, which is called, ELIXIR Recommended Interoperability Resource.

    Més informació "The version 7.0 of DisGeNET is now available and includes the creation of a new resource for COVID-19"

  • 06/05/2020 - Press release

    The FDA licenses Chemotargets CLARITY platform

    The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) has licensed the Chemotargets CLARITY® platform for predicting unknown secondary targets for new molecules of pharmaceutical interest. This contract is meant to directly address the FDA's requirement for a computational method which can predict potential molecular targets from chemical structure and provide a user-friendly environment for analysis of results. Molecular targets identified with high confidence by CLARITY® may be evaluated by FDA/CDER for their association with adverse events, addiction liability, or their association with disease within the specified indication(s).

    Més informació "The FDA licenses Chemotargets CLARITY platform"

  • 04/05/2020 - Press release

    New therapeutic targets for treating memory impairment in Down syndrome

    A team of researchers led by Dr. Victoria Puig from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), which also involved the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), has studied the neural basis of intellectual disability in mice with Down syndrome and has discovered that the neural networks of brain circuits relevant to memory and learning are over-activated and that the connectivity of these circuits is poor. The researchers have also observed that neural activity during sleep is abnormal and probably interferes with memory consolidation. The study has even identified biomarkers in brain rhythms that can predict memory deficits in the mice which are corrected by chronic treatment with a natural component of green tea, epigallocatechin gallate, which other studies have already shown to improve executive function in adults with Down syndrome.

    Més informació "New therapeutic targets for treating memory impairment in Down syndrome"

  • 04/05/2020 - Covid-19

    Hospital del Mar and Macaco join forces to promote research into COVID-19

    Today, the Barcelona-born singer Macaco is presenting his new song, Sanadoras Voluntades, a tribute to the work being done by health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The song and its video clip are the result of the combined efforts of the singer, the producers Nebraska and Playtime Movies, Hospital del Mar, the Friends of Hospital del Mar Foundation and the illustrator Lola Vendetta. The project was created to thank healers. "Our applause is not enough for this group of people who reject the label of heroes and simply demand protection and safety to be able to carry out their work", explains Dani Macaco, who performed and composed the song, along with Thomas Tirtha Rundquist, as well as directing the video, together with Bernat Saumell. This humanitarian initiative was supported by Hospital del Mar, one of the Catalan centres involved in treating COVID-19 patients, and by the Friends of Hospital del Mar Foundation. All the proceeds from playing the song and video clip on digital platforms, as well as the copyright, will be given to a research project at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) in the field of COVID-19 research and treatment.

    Més informació "Hospital del Mar and Macaco join forces to promote research into COVID-19"

  • 23/04/2020 - Institutional news

    New chairman of the IMIM External Scientific Advisory Board

    The Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) is made up of a group of prestigious international scientists, experts in the different areas corresponding to the IMIM research programs. Until very recently the president of the SAB was Dr. Joaquin Arribas, but with his incorporation as director of the IMIM and scientific director of the PSMAR, will take his place Dr. Xosé R. Bustelo, Deputy Director of the Cancer Research Center (CIC), University of Salamanca-CSIC, Director of the Genomics and Proteomics Unit and coordinator of the Tumor Progression Mechanisms Program at the same center. He is also a member of the CIBERONC Steering Committee. Dr. Bustelo holds a PhD in Biology from the University of Santiago de Compostela, his scientific training includes several stays at international research centers such as the Bristol Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute (Princeton, New Jersey, USA), as a postdoctoral fellow and later as Research Scientist and in the Department of Pathology at State University of New York (Stony Brook, New York, USA, as an Assistant Professor.

    Més informació "New chairman of the IMIM External Scientific Advisory Board"

  • 24/04/2020 - Press release

    Biomolecules from olive oil may have beneficial effects on blood vessel health

    Up to now, it was not known what happened in the human body after maslinic acid and oleanolic acid were consumed in diet-compatible quantities, in other words, what happened from the moment they were ingested until their total elimination from the body, what is referred to as pharmacokinetics. Furthermore, information on the biological activity of these biomolecules in the human body is very scarce in the scientific literature.  Using a method for determining oleanolic and maslinic acids in plasma developed by the Integrated Pharmacology and Systems Neuroscience Research Group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), and the Barcelona Mar Health Park Consortium node of the Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERobn) network, as part of the NUTRAOLEUM research project, a clinical trial on humans has evaluated the pharmacokinetics of these two triterpenic acids from the olive tree after the ingestion of olive oils enriched in these biomolecules at two different concentrations. In addition, the effect of these triterpenic acids on endothelial function has also been studied, revealing that they contribute to preserving blood vessel health and preventing arteriosclerosis.

    Més informació "Biomolecules from olive oil may have beneficial effects on blood vessel health"

  • 17/04/2020 - Press release

    Chemotargets opens an investment round to enter a new phase of growth

    Chemotargets, a global leader in predictive analytics solutions for the pharma and biotech sector, begins a phase of transformation to become a biotechnology company that will develop new medicines in multiple therapeutic areas, with an initial focus on oncology. Founded in 2006 as a spin-off from Dr. Jordi Mestres' Systems Pharmacology lab under the auspices of the IMIM Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, a leading academic centre of excellence based in Barcelona, Chemotargets is opening an investment round to undertake the transformation of its business model. Genesis Biomed, a well-established consultancy firm in the health and biotech sectors, and CREA Inversión, an M&A boutique advisory firm specialised in corporate transactions and financing, will advise Chemotargets in this transformation.

    Més informació "Chemotargets opens an investment round to enter a new phase of growth"

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Marta Calsina Freixas(ELIMINAR)

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