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  • 29/06/2020 - General information

    Chemotargets one of the top-20 Spanish biotech companies to watch according to the technology magazine of the Financial Times

    This month Sifted, the technology magazine of the Financial Times, has contacted various experts in the technology industry and in analyzing data on investments, has concluded that the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem has high quality healthtech startups, ranging from drug discovery to novel virtual reality therapies. In its latest edition, Sifted has published a list of the top healthcare start-ups in Spain, including Chemotargets, the IMIM's spin-off founded in 2006 by Dr. Jordi Mestres, coordinator of the Systems Pharmacology research group at IMIM. Chemotargets is a company that offers state-of-the-art methodologies with predictive capabilities that allow the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry to accelerate the design and optimization of drug candidates and improve cost efficiency and safety. Its CLARITY® platform covers the entire field of drug discovery and development, from the de novo design of molecules for new targets to pharmacovigilance in the drug market stage.

    Més informació "Chemotargets one of the top-20 Spanish biotech companies to watch according to the technology magazine of the Financial Times"

  • 25/06/2020 - General information

    IMIM participates in the Disc4All Project, an innovative training network of the European Commission

    Dr. Ferran Sanz, Dra. Laura Furlong and Dr. Baldo Oliva of the IMIM Biomedical Informatics Research Program, participate in the Disc4All project: Training network to advance integrated computational simulations in translational medicine, applied to intervertebral disc degeneration, coordinated by Jérôme Noailly, principal investigator in the Biomechanics and Mechanobiology research area at BCN MedTech of UPF. It  is one of the ten selected projects in Catalonia as an Innovative Training Network (ITN) Marie Sklodowska-Curie, in the European Commission's ITN MSC Actions call. The European innovative training networks (ITN) aim to train a new generation of researchers in their early stages who are creative, enterprising and innovative, capable of dealing with the challenges of the future and turn knowledge and ideas into products and services with an economic and a social benefit.

    Més informació "IMIM participates in the Disc4All Project, an innovative training network of the European Commission"

  • 16/06/2020 - General information

    Companion animals have been an important source of emotional support during lockdown

    A study conducted by researchers from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and the Affinity Foundation Chair at the UAB has concluded that companion animals have been an important source of emotional support for people during confinement. This benefit was greater the more the person has suffered from the confinement. The study also found that lockdown can have negative consequences for the animals. Specifically, dogs have shown more signs of nervousness and frustration, and may have trouble adjusting to their usual routine after confinement. Cats may have been exposed to excessive handling by the people they live with, which can lead to stress and­­ adaptation problems. In short, as people we still do not really understand the language of our animals, and we have not translated their real needs adequately.

    Més informació "Companion animals have been an important source of emotional support during lockdown"

  • 10/06/2020 - General information

    Dr. Marta Torrens, the only Spanish author involved in the United Nations and World Health Organisation guide to treating drug addiction

    The Director of the Addictions Process Group within the Institute of Neuropsychiatry and Addictions at the Hospital del Mar (INAD) and a researcher at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) has participated in the drafting of this document, which analyses the different treatments and establishes the standards of use for the entire world. The guide was presented in March at the 63rd session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs 2020, held at the United Nations Office in Vienna. In March, the United Nations, through its Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the World Health Organisation (WHO), jointly approved the first International standards for the treatment of drug use disorders. This document was written with the assistance of leading experts in this field, including Dr. Marta Torrens, Director of the Addictions Process Group at INAD and coordinator of the Addictions Research Group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM). Dr. Torrens is the only author from Spain.

    Més informació "Dr. Marta Torrens, the only Spanish author involved in the United Nations and World Health Organisation guide to treating drug addiction"

  • 27/05/2020 - General information

    Grant from the Spanish Transplant Society for a study by the Nephrology Service

    The Spanish Transplant Society has awarded the SET 2020 grant to intensify the research activity of Dr. María José Pérez Sáez, a consultant in the Nephrology Service and a researcher at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM). It is the only grant of this type that the organisation will award this year. The 30,000 euro grant will enable Dr. Pérez Sáez to work on one of the research projects currently underway in the department and IMIM, looking at fragility in the kidney transplant waiting list. The study of fragility in candidates for kidney transplants was launched by the Hospital del Mar's Nephrology Service in 2016, and currently has data from more than 500 patients. After an initial observational phase, in which the data collected will be analysed prospectively, two more phases have been designed: to biochemically characterise the fragile patient's phenotype, for which a biobank of samples has been set up; and a final intervention phase, with a pre-habilitation clinical trial in these patients while they are awaiting a transplant.

    Més informació "Grant from the Spanish Transplant Society for a study by the Nephrology Service"

  • General information

    Anna Bigas, new scientific director of CIBER Cancer

    Anna Bigas, CIBER Cancer (CIBERONC) researcher at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), was appointed the new Scientific Director of CIBERONC at the CIBER Standing Committee meeting held on March 26th.  Anna Bigas takes over from Joaquín Arribas, who has held this position since CIBERONC was set up in 2016. The new Scientific Director, who has already been involved in coordinating two CIBERONC programmes, Mechanisms of Tumour Progression and Training and Mobility, is the second woman to head up one of CIBER's thematic scientific areas, after the appointment of Marina Pollán as director of CIBER Epidemiology and Public Health. Dr. Bigas highlighted "the enormous scientific potential of the groups comprising CIBERONC to collaboratively address major challenges in oncology, as has already been demonstrated on several occasions. At such a critical time as the present, we need to make even more effort to unite all possible human and economic efforts to progress in the fight against cancer. In this sense, CIBERONC is able to provide unique and valuable support, making this advance a reality".

    Més informació "Anna Bigas, new scientific director of CIBER Cancer"

  • 22/01/2020 - General information

    Jordi Mestres appointed member of ChemBioFrance Scientific Council

    On January 10th, Jordi Mestres was officially appointed a member of the Scientific Council of ChemBioFrance, a French national research infrastructure dedicated to discovering small biologically active molecules that brings together four different sources of information: the national molecule collection (Chimiothèque Nationale); a network of screening platforms; a chemoinformatics platform; and a network of platforms for evaluating the metabolism and safety of molecules. The Scientific Council provides the infrastructure with external expertise and advice on its activity and operation. It meets once a year and comprises 9 independent scientists, experts from the various platforms, including Jordi Mestres, coordinator of the Systems Pharmacology research group at the GRIB (IMIM-UPF).

    Més informació "Jordi Mestres appointed member of ChemBioFrance Scientific Council"

  • 09/05/2019 - General information

    New version of DisGeNET 6.0 and ELIXIR recognition

    The GRIB Integrative Biomedical Informatics group (IMIM-UPF) has launched a new version of DisGeNET, a public knowledge management platform on the genomics of disease, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. DisGeNET offers information on genes and genomic variants associated with human diseases, which is obtained by integrating more than a dozen public resources and the scientific literature. DisGeNET contains one of the most comprehensive collections of genes and variants associated with human diseases that is currently available. The new version of DisGeNET (6.0) contains approximately 600,000 associations between more than 17,000 genes and 24,000 human diseases, focusing particularly on genetic alterations associated with disease: this version includes more than 117,000 genomic variants associated with 10,000 diseases. In addition, the phenotypic landscape covered by DisGeNET has been expanded to include the genomic basis of clinical manifestations of diseases, both signs and symptoms, as well as laboratory tests results.

    Més informació "New version of DisGeNET 6.0 and ELIXIR recognition"

  • 10/04/2019 - General information

    Jordi Mestres takes part in the European project EOSC-Life which aims to develop an open collaborative space for digital biology

    The project EOSC-Life aims to create an open collaborative digital space for life science in the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). EOSC-Life brings together the 13 european research infrastructures in the Health and Food domain of the ESFRI Roadmap and is funded by H2020 for the period 2019-2023. The project involves research groups from 46 European academic institutions. These include the GRIB Systems Pharmacology research group (IMIM-UPF) led by Jordi Mestres, which is helping develop collaborative tools for integrating and analysing all kinds of data in the field of life sciences.

    Més informació "Jordi Mestres takes part in the European project EOSC-Life which aims to develop an open collaborative space for digital biology"

  • 07/06/2018 - General information

    EU-wide network explores sudden cardiac arrest causes to help prevention and treatment

    Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) continues to be a major public health challenge, accounting for about 20% of all natural deaths in industrialised countries. Although there has been a substantial decline in overall coronary heart disease mortality rates in the past 30 years, SCA rates have fallen to a lesser extent. Some 50 % of all cardiovascular deaths are caused by SCA, a condition in which the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. With survival rates ranging between 5 % and 20 %, there's a need to improve SCA prevention and treatment. To address this issue, a European public-private consortium is now working on the creation of a joint, harmonised database by analysing SCA victims and DNA samples, along with detailed clinical and medication use information. unded by H2020 Programme of the European Union, the team of scientists contributing to the ESCAPE-NET project, including the System Pharmacology group of GRIB (IMIM-UPF) led by Jordi Mestres, summarised the objectives of their research in the 'European Heart Journal'.

    Més informació "EU-wide network explores sudden cardiac arrest causes to help prevention and treatment"

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