At the IGTP TODAY
Immunopathology
The European Commission has granted two projects to the IGTP within the HORIZON programme, which add up to a total of 1,670,346 euros in funding and deal with the preclinical development of immunotherapies.
The Immunopathology research group with the Immunology service and the Multiple Sclerosis Unit at the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital and Institute continue their research to develop treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS). Their latest paper published in Frontiers of Immunology, examines the mechanisms by which vitamin D3-dendritic cells are used to alter a patient's own lymphocytes so they can be used to inhibit autoimmune responses.
The Cytometry core facility, headed by Dr Marco Antonio Fernández, is one of the 9 European laboratories developing multidimensional panels for spectral cytometry to study the immune response to COVID-19 with the company Cytek Biosciences. Now the IGTP is one of the reference centres in this technology, the result of work in laboratories in Holland, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain.
The official kick-off meeting of the consortium INsTRuCT (INnovative Training in myeloid Regulatory Cell Therapy) took place this week in Regensburg, Germany and Dr Eva Martínez-Cáceres, Head of the Immunopathology Research Group, took part. InsTRuCT is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action, within the Horizon 2020 research funding programme. Its members are European researchers from the areas of academia and business and their aim is to carry out basic and clinical research to develop immunotherapies based on myeloid regulatory cells (MRC).
A team of researchers from the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital and Institute on the Can Ruti Campus, have started a phase I trial to slow the progress of multiple sclerosis (MS) with a cell product that uses the patient's own cells and reprograms their immune system.
This summer 11 students, from Badalona, Barcelona and Mollet are carrying out the practical part of their research projects for Baccalaureate through the IGTP Summer Programme in conjunction with the Organizers of the Badalona Scientific Workshops for schools
Since 2007 the Immunopathology Group led by Dr Eva Martínez-Cáceres and Dr Cristian Ramo Tello at the IGTP has been working to develop a new treatment for autoimmune diseases, in this case for multiple sclerosis. To help their work in this task, Dr Martinez Cáceres has coordinated a COST project, a European network of scientists working on similar problems; the project concluded in 2017 and has now published its scientific report.
The final conference for the project AFACTT (BM1305) (Action to Focus and Accelerate Cell-based Tolerance-inducing Therapies) took place in Barcelona 9-11 October
