At the IGTP TODAY
Several research groups at the IGTP are applying their experience and knowledge to fight against coronavirus and COVID-19. None of this would be possible without help, research is a long haul activity which needs multiple players collaborating over time and we need your help.
Researchers of the Experimental Tuberculosis Unit at the IGTP have launched a questionnaire to ask the public how they are being affected by the pandemic. The project, led by Dr Cristina Vilaplana, will collect replies from the public using a standard questionnaire to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on people, including healthcare workers including effects on health, emotional wellbeing and family finances.
In new study in a cohort of patients from Southern Europe, researchers including the innovation in Respiratory Infections and Tuberculosis Diagnosis Group at the IGTP have confirmed the importance of exploring immune pathways other than the ones modulated by interferon-gamma, which is the one that has been most studied in work on TB until now. The study published in Frontiers of Immunology has also hinted at ways to differentiate between latent and active TB, a major goal in the battle against the disease.
A team of researchers from the Computational Biology and Complex Systems research group (BIOCOM-SC) of the UPC and the Centre for Comparative Medicine and Bioimage (CMCiB) of the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) with the support of "la Caixa" Foundation, have developed a mathematical model to follow up the epidemic of COVID-19. The report that they have produced for the Strategy Office of the European Union is updated every day and includes predictions for Catalonia, Spain and the European Union. The model also serves to analyze the efficiency of the measures being established by different countries
The gene therapy project at the IGTP to treat Friedreich's ataxia, a rare disease, led by the research group for Neurogenetics at the IGTP, is one of the four selected in the first call for CaixaImpulse 2019. It is the first edition of the programme run by 'la Caixa' to promote innovation projects in their later stages.
In February 2019 the Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology Research Group, led by Teresa Gasull at the IGTP published a review paper on various aspects of brain iron chemistry in Frontiers in Neuroscience. A year later the paper is showing excellent impact figures.
Last week the preliminary results of a collaboration between the scenic arts and science, or in other words, between the Èpica Foundation of the Fura dels Baus and the IGTP were presented. The workshop and the resulting performance took place last November and now the researchers are processing the data collected from the experience, which will be useful for their respective research projects.
Scientists from the Innovation in Respiratory Infections and Tuberculosis Diagnosis Group at the IGTP and the Microbiology Service at the Germans Trias Hospital have published a paper in PLOS One on negative effects of vapour from e-cigarettes on the immune response against tuberculosis (TB). The results describe the effect of the vapour specifically on TB infection and they support the need for policies to reduce exposure to both smoke and e-vapour as part of strategies to control TB.
This years' edition of the Workshop on Rare Diseases took place at the IGTP this Thursday with the title 'A Multidisciplinary Approach to Rare Diseases' timed for the International Day for Rare Diseases, celebrated this year on 29 February. The key to improving the management of this type of disease is dialogue between different specialty areas and a much more global approach. This must be coupled with the inclusion of research staff when deciding on the lines of research to be advanced.
The IGTP is participating in this recently launched EU-funded project to explore the biological pathways that may link the alterations observed in the retina with those present in the brain in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D). In this way, the RECOGNISED project hopes to use the eye as if it was a window into the brain.
