At the IGTP TODAY
To celebrate World Diabetes Day we will literally be talking about the illness at the IGTP; several members of the Immunology of Diabetes Group, which is led by Marta Vives-Pi and concentrates on research into diabetes type 1, will be taking part in talks and discussions in scientific and public forums during the next few days.
Researchers from the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital and Institute have developed and successfully validated a new one-step screening method to diagnose active hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in people who inject drugs. The new method will permit better planning of future more effective actions to improve diagnostics and treatments for this vulnerable group. The study also estimated the prevalence of HCV infection in this community and showed that many people tested do not know that they are infected.
The results point to a much more active role for pancreatic beta cells in type 1 diabetes than previously appreciated and suggests a mechanism that may play a key role in other auto-immune diseases.
Yesterday evening the ceremony to present awards to the 43 projects that will receive funding for cancer research from the 2018 edition of the La Marató de TV3 and Catalunya Radio was held at the Academy of Medical Sciences. Three of the projects will be carried out under the leadership of Germans Trias professionals.
In 2017 the team designed and tested a gene panel, in collaboration with the ICO, to standardize and simplify genetic testing for hereditary cancer. In the current work the group has validated and extended the use of this panel in the routine genetic testing for different RASopathies. These are other genetic diseases caused by mutations in genes of the Ras/MAPK pathway for which patients exhibit an overlapping clinical presentation with NF1, especially in children.
In the context of research and especially in the case of research into rare diseases, the COST Action Projects (Cooperation in Science and Technology) are key to fostering transnational cooperation. This is the message that a group of Spanish scientists, which includes Dr Gisela Nogales, have sent in a letter recently published in The Lancet Neurology.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) is supporting a team of scientists that includes a group at the IGTP, led from the Andalusian research centre Cabimer, in their search for a cure for type 1 diabetes (T1D). Researchers in the Immunology of Diabetes Group at the IGTP are participating in the project as expert immunologists as they have wide experience of immunotherapies for T1D.
The Director of the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP), Manel Puig, and the President of the Canon Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Medical), Toshio Takiguchi, visited the CMCiB on Monday 14 October to view the new bioimaging facilities that complete the center as a pioneering research platform in comparative medicine. The CMCiB, a center promoted by the IGTP and a benchmark in comparative medicine, bioimaging and computational models, is a pioneer in the application of alternative methods of biomedical research that directly affect the improvement of people's health.
For the first time the IGTP has participated in the European Researchers' Night, part of the European Commission's Horizon 2020 Programme, which aims bring scientists and society together. Five researchers from the institute have participated in science popularization events.
The IGTP is one of the participating institutions working to promote this along with other research institutions and also others from academia, business and the third sector. Badalona Health Services (Badalona Serveis Assistencials, BSA), the municipal health organization promoted the candidature. BSA is part of an ecosystem of over 30 bodies and associations who make the local area eligible for the award.
