At the IGTP TODAY
To commemorate International Women's Day, we asked four questions to researchers from various profiles at IGTP and professionals from different research support areas. The aim is to understand the difficulties they have faced as women in their professional field and to gain insight into their perspectives on the future.
In 2023, the IGTP has continued to make significant strides in its mission. Here, we review the year's top news stories, reflecting the persistent drive and collaborative spirit that underpin this institution.
A collaborative study led by researchers from IGTP has revealed the promising possibilities of using an agarose spot migration assay to examine the ability of extracellular vesicles to attract other cells in a controlled environment. The study has been recently published in the journal BMC Biology.
The first urine test that detects kidney fibrosis as an alternative to kidney biopsies, an initiative from the IVECAT group, and a project applying artificial intelligence to rapidly categorise stroke patients and enhance their recovery chances, from the Neurovascular Research group, are two of the fifteen projects from Catalan research centres selected within the 2023 call of the new CaixaImpulse Healthcare Innovation programme.
Researchers from the REMAR-IVECAT ("Kidney Related Diseases Research" and "Innovation in VEsicles and Cells for Application in Therapy") group, from the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP), identify molecular pathways in regulatory B cells that are essential for their therapeutic applications. In the article that has been recently published in Frontiers in Immunology, the use of mesenchymal stem cells has allowed distinguishing the molecules that are essential to monitoring regulatory B cells in kidney transplants.
Researchers at the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) discover new facets of the biology of extra-cellular vesicles that will advance their use in therapies. In an article published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences they describe the importance of glycosylation for the interactions between extracellular vesicles from mesenchymal stem cells and endothelial cells.
Researchers from the ICREC Group (Cardiac Insufficiency and Regeneration) in cardiovascular diseases at the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) continue to work on therapeutic technologies to repair cardiac tissue after a heart attack. In an article published in Theranostics, they present a study of extracellular vesicles from mesenchymal stem cells combined with tissue engineering as a therapy to repair the heart after a heart attack. They have carried out the study on a porcine heart attack model at the Centre for Comparative Medicine and Bioimage (CMCiB) at the IGTP.
Scientists of the ICREC group at the Germans Trias i Pujol Research institute (IGTP) continue to refine their technology for repairing cardiac tissue after a heart attack. In a paper published in Bioactive Materials they present their latest work in which they use implanted scaffolds containing no cells, but extracellular vesicles that promote the repair of myocardium damaged in a heart attack.
11 March is World Kidney Day and this year it is focussing on quality of life for people living with kidney disease. Currently 10% of the world population is affected by chronic renal disease (CRD) and more than 2 million people receive dialysis or kidney transplants worldwide. At the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) the Kidney Disease Group and the Innovation in Vesicles and Cells for Application in Therapy Group (REMAR-IVECAT) led by Francesc Borràs is working on improving diagnosis and treatments for these diseases. The group studies biomarkers for non-invasive monitoring of the conditions in patients and they are also study the application of advanced therapies. In fact they are pioneers in the use of extracellular vesicles as a therapeutic tool for kidney disease.
Members of the Kidney-affecting Diseases Research Group and the Innovation in Vesicles and Cells for Application in Therapy (REMAR-IVECAT) have recently published two studies led by Dr Francesc E. Borràs, which identify possible biomarkers of irreversible damage to transplanted kidneys; a pathology that eventually causes them to stop working. The papers have been published in the International Journal of Molecular Science and the Journal of Nephrology.
