September 9th, 2022 - Press notes
Patients admitted for SARS-CoV-2 infection with unbalanced levels of two immune system cells, CD4 and CD8 T-lymphocytes have a worse prognosis and a higher risk of dying. Having more than two times as many CD4 than CD8 lymphocytes increases the likelihood of dying from the infection by 4.6 times and doubles the likelihood of suffering from respiratory distress, according to a study by physicians and researchers from Hospital del Mar, Hospital del Mar Institute of Medical Research and Pompeu Fabra University, published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine. This leads the signatories of the study to recommend a more aggressive therapeutic approach in these patients upon admission. In addition, they consider that this situation may be seen in other viral infections.
August, 11th - Press notes
The research, led by the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), research center of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM-Hospital del Mar) and the University of Gothenburg, has been published in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine. The study, which used data from almost 400 participants of the ALFA+ Study, which has the impetus of the "la Caixa" Foundation, determines that the biomarkers p-tau231 and p-tau217 measured in the blood are suitable for indicating brain changes related to the amyloid protein in people without cognitive symptoms. The results of this research make p-tau231 a very promising blood biomarker to detect early those middle-aged people who show the first brain changes associated with Alzheimer's and to conduct clinical trials aimed at this early stage of Alzheimer's.
July, 4th 2022 - Press notes
The possibility of re-freezing vials once they are prepared may enable the manipulation of vaccines in the country of origin, freezing the syringes, and sending them to their destination for immediate use, without the need for a major infrastructure. The shelf life of the re-frozen vaccine is at least one month.
May 16th May - Press notes
Researchers from the UPF BCN MedTech research unit, the IMIM-Hospital del Mar and the Hospital del Mar have studied the relationship between clinical treatment options for osteoarthritis of the knee and the functionality, speed and forces involved in each patient's stride. The results reveal that two patients with the same symptoms may need different treatment depending on their age and body mass index.
May 12th 2022 - Press notes
A platform developed by the Centre Nacional d'Anàlisi Genòmica (CNAG-CRG) allows doctors and researchers from Catalan hospitals to share data and otherwise scattered expertise and diagnose patients with neurologic rare diseases. During the pilot project, a diagnosis was provided to 67 out of 323 patients (20.7% of cases), just by reanalysing previously available data. The results constitute an important milestone for ending the 'diagnostic odyssey' faced by patients in Catalonia. The collaborative approach also resulted in the identification of six new genes linked to specific diseases, which will make it easier to diagnose certain diseases in the future. The results, published today in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, were possible thanks to the Undiagnosed Rare Disease Program of Catalonia (URD-Cat), funded by the Departament de Salut de la Generalitat de Catalunya. The URD-Cat project was coordinated by the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM-Hospital del Mar) and involved more than 140 professionals from 15 different research centres and hospitals.
4 May, 2022 - Press notes
The Biomedical Informatics Research Programme of IMIM-Hospital del Mar has received one of the European Research Council (ERC) grants for the NovoGenePop project, the ERC Advanced Grant. Among the 253 researchers selected, only thirteen are from Spain. The project at the IMIM-Hospital del Mar, the only Spanish biomedical research centre to be selected, will develop bioinformatics tools to identify specific genes in certain individuals or populations. This may pave the way for accelerated research in fields such as cancer and hereditary diseases. In total, the ERC Advanced Grants have distributed 624 million between 253 European researchers. This is the fourth grant of this type that the IMIM-Hospital del Mar has received in the last years.
March 24, 2022 - Press notes
Patients suffering from ALS have a higher number of skin cells presenting the TDP-43 protein outside the cell nucleus. This protein can be found in the nucleus of all human cells, but in the case of ALS patients, the protein moves outside the nucleus of brain and spinal cord motor neurons, turning it a biomarker of ALS. The discovery of this biomarker detectable in small skin samples can be very useful for cases in which diagnosis is difficult, or in those with a family history of ALS, and even for early diagnosis.
March 17th, 2022 - Press notes
Study published in Nature Cancer
Researchers at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute and Hospital del Mar have transformed immunotherapy-resistant tumours into tumours that respond to this treatment, achieving cures in animal models through an innovative therapeutic strategy in triple-negative breast cancer, the most aggressive subtype. Researchers have discovered the essential role of a new factor, LCOR, in enabling cancer cells to present tumour antigens on their surfaces. These antigens allow the immune system to recognise the tumour, an essential step if immunotherapy treatment is to succeed. On the other hand, they have shown that cancer stem cells have very low levels of LCOR, making them invisible to the immune system and therefore resistant to treatment. The work that has just been published used an innovative experimental messenger RNA system, similar to the technology used for COVID-19 vaccines, to produce LCOR in tumour cells. In this way, the resistant tumour cells of triple-negative cancer become visible and sensitive to the immune system. This approach is also being investigated in other breast cancer subtypes. Currently, the clinical use of immunotherapy in breast cancer is limited to the triple-negative subtype. The results have been positive, but far from the level of success achieved in other tumours. This publication now opens up a new avenue for the development of therapeutic strategies to restore LCOR in immunotherapy-resistant cells that can be applied in clinical trials, thereby significantly improving immunotherapy effectiveness.15th March - Press notes
In contrast, exposure to environmental pollutants such as fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and soot significantly increases the risk of suffering an ischaemic stroke. The article in the journal Environment International, one of the most important studies published to date in Europe, analysed data from the entire population in Catalonia, geo-referencing more than three and a half million people. The authors consider that these results mean that the maximum levels of atmospheric pollutants established by the EU need to be reconsidered.
27th January 2022 - Press notes
This is a new valid marker for diagnosing this type of tumour, one of the cancers with the worst prognosis. It is, in fact, the third leading cause of cancer death in developed countries. The study, published in the journal eBioMedicine, was led by researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute and IBB-CSIC-IDIBAPS. Their results point to a protein present in tumour cells as an indicator of pancreatic cancer in early stages of the disease. This marker can be detected through a simple blood test, facilitating its application in clinical practice.
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