About

This multidisciplinary group is made up of medical staff of the Infectious Diseases and International Health Unit of the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital (HUGTiP) and research staff of the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP). The group has been carrying out collaborative research for more than 15 years and is part of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III research networks, at first in the network Respira (RTIC CO3/11) and later in the Networked Biomedical Research Centre for Respiratory Diseases (CIBERES). It is also a consolidated research group recognised by the Generalitat of Catalonia (AGAUR: 2021 SGR01547).

The general aim of the group is to carry out clinical and translational research on infectious and respiratory diseases.

Keywords: Legionella, infectious diseases, one-health, nosocomial infections, immunodeficiency.

Clinical and Environmental Infectious Diseases (CEID) research group

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.

New antibacterial treatments

Active projects

Utilidad de la vigilancia semiautomatizada y de las técnicas moleculares integrales en el diagnóstico precoz de la neumonía nosocomial en el enfermo no ventilado

PI: Nieves Sopena Galindo
Funding agency: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII)
Agency code: PI22/01600
Start date: 2023
End date: 2025

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

PI: Noemí Párraga
Funding agency: Sustainco Invest
Start date: 2023
End date: 2025

Estudio molecular de aislados clínicos y ambientales de Legionella implicados en brotes de legionelosis en nuestra área geográfica

PI: Noemí Párraga
Funding agency: Agència de Salut Pública de la Generalitat de Catalunya
Start date: 2015

Plantes Mediterrànies contra els Super Bacteris del tracte respiratori

PI: Sara Quero
Funding agency: 23a Convocatòria de les Beques Taulí de Recerca i Innovació, en la modalitat: Ajuts per a la recerca de grups acreditats de l'I3PT, grups consolidats i grups en fase de consolidació
Start date: 2022
End date: 2024


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).

Scientific publications

Roure S, Pérez-Quílez O, Vallès X, Valerio L, López-Muñoz I, Soldevila L, Torrella A, Fernández-Rivas G, Chamorro A, Clotet B. Schistosomiasis Among Female Migrants in Non-endemic Countries: Neglected Among the Neglected? A Pilot Study. Front Public Health. 2022 Mar 9;10:778110. DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.778110. PMID: 35372213; PMCID: PMC8965459.

Vallejo Camazón N, Teis A, Martínez Membrive MJ, Llibre C, Bayés-Genís A, Mateu L. COVID-19 persistente y angina microvascular [Long COVID-19 and microvascular disease-related angina]. Rev Esp Cardiol. 2022 May;75(5):444-446. DOI: 10.1016/j.recesp.2021.10.011. PMID: 34876772; PMCID: PMC8639437.

Ainsua-Enrich E, Pedreño-Lopez N, Bracke C, Ávila-Nieto C, Rodríguez de la Concepción ML, Pradenas E, Trinité B, Marfil S, Miranda C, González S, Toledo R, Font M, Benet S, Escribà T, Jimenez-Moyano E, Peña R, Cedeño S, Prado JG, Mothe B, Brander C, Izquierdo-Useros N, Vergara-Alert J, Segalés J, Massanella M, Benitez RM, Romero A, Molina-Morant D, Blanco J, Clotet B, Mateu L, Pedro-Botet ML, Carrillo J. Kinetics of immune responses elicited after three mRNA COVID-19 vaccine doses in predominantly antibody-deficient individuals. iScience. 2022 Nov 18;25(11):105455. DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105455. PMID: 36320330; PMCID: PMC9613776.

CEID Group publications

News

- Investigación,

El Grupo de Estudio de Infecciones Clínicas y Ambientales firma una colaboración para el desarrollo de un nuevo biocida para el tratamiento del agua de consumo humano

El Grupo de Investigación en Enfermedades Infecciosas Clínicas y Ambientales (CEID) ha descubierto una molécula de origen natural con gran capacidad bactericida, amebicida y favorecedora de la reducción de biofilms. La colaboración que han firmado los investigadores del grupo con una empresa privada financiará la mejora de las características de la molécula para ser aplicada en grandes instalaciones de agua, evitando que el agua de consumo humano pueda ejercer como vehículo en la transmisión de enfermedades de origen bacteriano.

- Investigación

El Grupo de Estudio de la Legionelosis se consolida como grupo de investigación de referencia en Cataluña

La Agencia de Salud Pública de Cataluña (ASPCAT) ha incrementado el presupuesto concedido al Grupo de Estudio de la Legionelosis (GELeg) del Grupo de Investigación en Enfermedades Infecciosas Clínicas y Ambientales (CEID) del Instituto de Investigación Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP), ratificando su confianza en la resolución de brotes de legionela. El aumento supone casi el doble de las partidas presupuestarias de años anteriores y permitirá ampliar el alcance de las tareas que se llevan a cabo en el laboratorio.

+ Noticias

Contact

Noemí Párraga Niño

(+34) 93 554 30 50 extn 6410

nparraga(ELIMINAR)@igtp.cat