At the IGTP TODAY
The second edition of HEALTHIO, a trade fair for health and innovation at the Fira de Barcelona, was held on 16-18 October. It brought together members of the public, health professionals and innovative small companies in an open space designed to promote dialogue between all the players in the healthcare ecosystem and promote evolution of the sector.
Biointaxis, the new spin-off company of the IGTP, was recently constituted. The company stems from research led by Dr Antoni Matilla-Dueñas together with Dr Ivelisse Sánchez of the Neurogenetics Group of the IGTP and has been created to increase translational research leading to treatments and new genomic technologies for rare neurological diseases with genetic causes. The first project the company is undertaking is the development of a gene therapy for Friedreich's Ataxia.
Dr Daniel Fuster of the Addiction Unit of the Internal Medicine Service at the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital and Research Institute (IGTP) and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has co-authored a landmark review article on alcohol use in patients with chronic liver disease with Dr Jeffrey H Samet of Boston Medical Center and University School of Medicine. The article has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The Hereditary Cancer Research Group at the IGTP studies the genetic diseases that bring a high risk of developing cancer, one of which is neurofibromatosis (NF). The group has just started two new projects to study neurofibromatosis types 1 and 2 thanks to the support of the Neurofibromatosis Project Foundation.
The IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute, the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC) and the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) have presented the Can Ruti Research Seminar Series 2018-2019. Eleven prestigious speakers from different fields of research will give seminars during the academic year on a range of health research topics of interest to scientists, doctors and students from all the institutions on the campus.
Researchers at the Biomedical Research Institute of Lleida (IRBLleida), the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) and the Spanish Networked Group CIBER Diabetes and Associated Metabolic Diseases (CIBERDEM) have shown that adult patients with diabetes type 1 (DT1) have healthier eating habits and stick closer to the Mediterranean diet than non-diabetic subjects.It has been published in the European Journal of Nutrition and is the first study that tracks the adherence to the Mediterranean diet in this type of patient.A study has also evaluated the positive benefits of exercise for people with diabetes type 1.
Researchers of the Cardiovascular Disease Group and the CIBERCV Group, led by Dr Antoni Bayés Genís, have advanced the study of prognostic markers for heart failure, a progressive disease and a public health problem of the first order. They have studied monocyte (a type of white blood cell) count and distribution in a cohort of 400 outpatients with heart failure with a view to showing their predictive value. The study has been published in PLoS One.
A novel study indicates promising avenues in an innovative approach for developing a vaccine against Plasmodium vivax, the most prevalent human malaria parasite outside sub-Saharan Africa. The study indicates the possibility of using small vesicles (or exosomes) secreted by immature red blood cells as a vaccine platform against malaria. The paper was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
A team of researchers from the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital and Institute on the Can Ruti Campus, have started a phase I trial to slow the progress of multiple sclerosis (MS) with a cell product that uses the patient's own cells and reprograms their immune system.
The Genomics and Transcriptomics of Synucleinopathies Group led by Dr Katrin Beyer has moved closer towards finding a definitive biomarker for dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Their most recent work has been patented and the latest results have been published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. This is the next step following on from work on new experimental models, biomarkers in blood samples and sleep disorders in dementia patients described earlier this year on this website.
