At the IGTP TODAY
The two strategies aim to test new approaches to screening for SARS-CoV-2 infections and improve detection in schools. The project is coordinated by CEEISCAT, as a research group at the IGTP and promoted by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education of the Government of Catalonia.
PLASTICHEAL project will develop new methodologies and will provide reliable scientific evidence for regulators to set the knowledge basis for adequate risk assessment. The results will draw a variety of experimental human models and measuring potential health effects under short and long-term conditions. The researchers at the IGTP will focus on the study of the affect of plastics to the immune response to different microorganisms.
The IGTP has taken part in a study led by researchers from the IBV Biomedicine Institute of Valencia published recently in Nature Communications. The study has increased the understanding of how genetic diversity arises in lung infections caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and how this is related to the development of antibiotic resistant variants. The study is based on surgical samples and data from tuberculosis patients form the SH-TBL cohort of the Experimental Tuberculosis Group (UTE) at the IGTP.
Researchers from the Experimental Tuberculosis Unit (UTE) led by Dr Cristina Vilaplana, have presented the results of the project COM-COVID, a questionnaire for the public aimed at understanding the effects of the pandemic on society. The COM-COVID is an initiative of the SMA-TB Consortium, led by the UTE and the IGTP, with the collaboration of the Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute and the Fight AIDS Foundation. Dr Maria Rosa Sarrias from the Innate Immunity Group and Dr Carol Armengol of the c-LOG research group at the IGTP have also taken part. The results have been sent in a report by email to all the participants of the questionnaire who requested it, and the research article can also be consulted at medRxiv.
The seed-funding round for the IGTP Spin-off Time is Brain has reached its financing objective in record time almost as soon as it opened. The company opened the round on the platform Capital Cell and has not only reached the goal of 640,000, but has passed it and received 800,000, the figure the spin-off had set as a maximum.
Researchers from the IDIAP Jordi Gol Foundation, CEEISCAT and the IGTP have shown that a strategy to improve early detection of HIV by primary healthcare providers is effective. When a patient is diagnosed with an illness or group of symptoms which could be related to HIV, an alert appears on the screen of the doctor attending in the form of a pop-up, which recommends a blood test. The results of the project, which have been presented at the international conference HepHIV, show that primary healthcare centres with the system in place are detecting 50% more positive cases than those which don't.
Time is Brain SL, a spin-off of the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP), has just announced a round of equity seed-funding of 640,000 euros. The company is developing a medical device to improve the diagnostics of acute ischaemic stroke (AIS).
The Innovation in Respiratory Infections and Tuberculosis Diagnosis Group have used powerful genomics and computational tools to look at the genomes and phenotypes of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from patients on mechanical ventilation, suffering from different types of infection. The study, published in Toxins, identifies differences that could help doctors better manage patients with S. aureus infections in the future
A study published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows that clonal haematopoiesis is an important pathological process that accelerates and aggravates the clinical progression of heart failure, independently of the presence of atherosclerosis. The researchers of the Heart Disease Research Group the IGTP have participated in the study, led by the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) and the Hospital Universitario Virgen de Arrixaca in Murcia.
A research group led by the Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute, with the participation of the IGTP, has shown that reduced levels of betaine in maternal milk are associated with more rapid growth of the baby during the first months of life, this is a risk factor for childhood obesity. The researchers have studied the changes in the presence of this nutrient in animal models and have observed temporary changes in the intestinal microbiota and long-term changes in their metabolic health.
