At the IGTP TODAY
The Catalan Alliance for Insitutes for Research and Innovation in Health (IRISCAT) has launched its first science communications activity in a series of webinars to share different topics of biomedical research into COVID-19.
The Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices (AEMPS) approves a clinical trial with the emergency ventilator device developed by the Barcelona company Protofy.xyz with the financial and scientific support of professionals from the Hospital Clínic Barcelona, the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital and the University of Barcelona. It is a device to automate manual ventilation processes and provide respiratory support for patients in emergency situations when conventional ventilators are unavailable. The support received from civil society, companies and administrations has been key in developing the design and industrial scaling of this model, which will contribute to providing the health system with the necessary ventilators.
The Germans Trias i Pujol and Clínic Barcelona Hospitals and the University of Barcelona are providing scientific support to develop a device that allows patients to be ventilated in the absence of conventional ventilators. Three Catalan companies (Protofy.xyz, GasN2 and Innova) are creating and adapting emergency models of ventilators to deal with the crisis caused by COVID-19. The three proposals are now in the simulation and experimental phases. When they have completed all the validations and have obtained the authorization of the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices (AEMPS) production will start on industrial scale. Support from civil society will be key in developing the three models and financing production to contribute to providing the Catalan health system with the ventilators needed.
The Germans Trias I Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) is working alongside the hospital and at the service of the Ministry of Health of the Government of Catalonia to make all the necessary disposable material and resources available for the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19. The research groups at the centre are also working against the clock to prepare projects for the extraordinary competitive funding calls that have been issued to fund research into SARS-CoV-2 and the disease COVID-19.
The IGTP has been a member of a European community of practice (CoP) since it signed the memorandum of understanding in August 2019. The community aims to advance gender equality in European centres funding and carrying out research in the Life Sciences. Members of the Can Ruti Campus Working Group Women in Science (WiS) have been participating in activities since then and are currently helping to prepare a staff survey to offer to all the participating centres.
The IGTP-GTP biobanc has won an award for the best oral presentation of a poster, for the team's work on analysing the work of the biobanc over the past 5 years and evaluating the balance between samples stored and requests for samples made. The team demonstrated that the biobanc is dynamic, receiving a steady increase of requests for samples and is able to respond to changing needs from researchers.
The IRISCAT Alliance is a cooperative work space formed by the 7 research and innovation institutes linked to the ICS, in a first phase; the mechanisms for future incorporation of other centers will be established. The objective of the alliance is to take advantage of the synergies of the institutes to enhance and make the translational and clinical research of the Catalan health system more competitive, in order to enhance this reference hub in southern Europe.
Researchers at the IGTP and Germans Trias Hospital have published new research in Frontiers in Immunology on the behaviour of dendritic cells (DC) during the development of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in children. These cells are involved in both the destruction of beta cells in T1D and the regulation of the immune response. This paper fills an important gap in knowledge about the disease in children.
The VIII edition of the Pedrera Talents prizes were presented last Thursday at the Pedrera. Three institutions participate in the awards, promoted by the Catalunya la Pedrera Foundation: they are the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP), the Clinic Hospital Barcelona and the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology.
This week the IGTP and other centres hosted the “Can Ruti Open Door Session” within Science Week in Badalona; the Science Week is a national event organized by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT). This year nearly 200 high school students from various educational centres have visited the research facilities at nine different organizations on the Can Ruti Campus and learned about studies taking place there.
