Research lines

Infectious endocarditis (PI: Rosa Benitez Mateu)

a) Prospective database: diagnosis and follow-up of patients with infectious endocarditis who are admitted to the Hospital.

b) EnteroColonus GAMES Project: Collaboration in intervention study, case prospective and multicentre controls.

c) Poët study validation: in 2018 promising results were published on the oral treatment of infectious endocarditis. The group is collaborating in a multicentre study led by the Hospital Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona on the validation of Poët.

Primary immunodeficiencies (PIs: Rosa Benitez Mateu, Maria Lluisa Pedro-Botet and Carme Bracke)

In recent years we have seen an exponential increase in the number of patients with this diagnosis, mainly due to a deficit in antibody synthesis. A care committee was created at our centre in 2007 and the actions of this committee, including extensive training course at the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital and throughout the healthcare region are probably the cause of this increase in accurate diagnoses. The group is currently monitoring more than 150 patients with the disease and 30% are receiving replacement treatment. The healthcre experience accumulated over the years by the group and the fact that the team are research members of the CIBEres network (group 30) has made it possible for its members to participate in a range of resarch projects over the years.

a) Finding a prognostic factor that more adequately marks the future development of chronic respiratory disease in these patients than the level of IgG: Multicentre prospective study.

b) Increase the number of new diagnoses and reduce the time to diagnosis: almost experimental multicentre study.

c) Find a parameter that anticipates lung injury in patients with variable common immunodeficiency: Prospective study.

One Health (PI: Esteban Reynaga)

This research line is dedicated to multidrug-resistant microorganisms involved in animal-human-animal transmission and with special dedication to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) CC398.

Active Projects:

1. Study of prevalence of MRSA-CC398 in various workers within the meat industry.
2. MRSA-CC398 infection in admitted patients. Epidemiological features.
3. Study of the prevalence of MRSA-CC398 in the general population and in the hospital population in an area of ​​high density pig farms.
4. Study of MRSA-CC398 colonization in the final product of the pig.
5. Infections in pigs by MRSA-CC398 in collaboration with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the UAB.

Legionella (PIs: Sara Quero, Noemí Párraga-Niño, Maria Lluisa Pedro-Botet, Miquel Sabrià)

This is a long-standing and well-defined and well-established research line. It focuses on the study of different aspects of legionellosis:  clinical, epidemiological and molecular. The most relevant lines are:

a) Molecular epidemiology: with special emphasis on the subtype of Legionella (we are a Reference Laboratory of the General Directorate of Public Health of Catalonia for the Study of Legionellosis Outbreaks in Catalonia).

b) Detection of Legionella in water: We have a patent developed for the rapid detection of Legionella in environmental waters.

c) Study of biocides: design and study of new biocides for the treatment of sanitary water (hospitals). This project is currently funded by a FIS / 2016 grant

Nosocomial infections (PI: Nieves Sopena)

a) Control of Nosocomial Infection: MRSA (doctoral thesis and publications), control and prevention of nosocomial infection (CD, surgical infection) and in particular nosocomial pneumonia (FIS project, direction of doctoral thesis, communications, conferences and scientific publications).

b) Nosocomial pneumonia outside the Critical Care Unit: researchers from this service carried out a case and control study about the risk factors for nosocomial pneumonia outside the Critical Care Unit. This study has allowed us to reduce nosocomial pneumonia incidence thanks to the application of a series of measures aimed at preventing bronchoaspiration. A prospective study is proposed on the relationship between changes in the oropharyngeal flora, the respiratory microbiome and the appearance of nosocomial pneumonia outside the Critical Care Unit.

Emerging infectious diseases (PI: Silvia Roure)

1. Multicenter study Chagazol on the evaluation of a new therapy against Chagas disease, the results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2014.
2. Importance of improving the diagnosis of Schistosomiasis for the reduction of the cost derived from the complications of this disease: study published at the PlosOne journal describes the cases of Schistosomiasis during 14 years in the North Metropolitan International Health Unit.

Ongoing Projects

Prevalencia de Staphylococcus aureus resistente a meticilina CC398 en el ámbito comunitario y hospitalario en una área de alta densidad de la cabaña porcina)
PI: Esteban Reynaga
Funding agency: ISCIII
Agency code: PI18/01258
Start date: 2019
End date: 2021

Nuevos productos de bajo coste para la desinfección en sistemas de agua: estudio de la eficiencia sobre Legionella

PIs: Maria Lluisa Pedro-Botet & Noemí Párraga-Niño
Funding agency: ISCIII
Agency code: PI16/01347
Start date: 2017
End date: 2020

Conveni de Col·laboració entre l'Agència de Salut Pública i la Fundació Institut d'Investigació Germans Trias i Pujol (Laboratori de investigació del Grup d´Estudi de Legionel.la), per desenvolupar estudi molecular d'aïllats clínics i ambientals de Legionella a Catalunya (Laboratori de referència).