23/11/2020 - Institutional news
The BAPP (Bioanalysis, Proteomics and Pharmacology), a collaborative centre from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and the UPF, has obtained the TECNIO accreditation for the period 2020-2023. This seal, which the centre had already obtained in previous editions, is awarded by the Government of Catalonia through ACCIÓN. It identifies and raises the profile of centres with high scientific and technical capacities that are considered to be developers of differential technologies and which are leaders when it comes to transferring their knowledge and technologies to industry. The BAPP is a multidisciplinary centre specialising in research and service activities in four sectors: pharmacology, neurosciences, peptide chemistry, and bioanalysis. Its main focus is the development of new drugs for human and veterinary use. It comprises the Integrated Pharmacology and Systems Neuroscience (Farmacologia Integrada i Neurociència de Sistemes; FINS) research group of the IMIM-Hospital del Mar, on the one hand, and the Proteomics and Protein Chemistry research group from the UPF on the other.
12/11/2020 - Covid-19
Offering comprehensive and multidisciplinary care to frail older patients admitted for COVID-19 makes it possible to reduce the impact hospitalisation and isolation have on their functional capacity. This has been demonstrated in a study by doctors and nurses at Hospital del Mar, which validates the usefulness of this comprehensive care model, ACE (Acute Care for Elders). The work has been published in the magazine Geriatric Nursing. The study followed 51 patients admitted during the first wave of COVID-19 to the Dr. Emili Mira Centre, a facility at the Mar Health Park that specialises in the care of psychiatric diseases and geriatric patients. The functional deterioration that appears in older adults during a hospital stay for acute illness (30-80% of geriatric patients admitted to hospital suffer a reduction in their capacities as a result of a hospital stay), is even more important in the case of COVID-19 because of the restrictions applied to the isolation units. To avoid this situation, a comprehensive care model, ACE, was implemented.
10/11/2020 - General information
The director of the Neuropsychiatry and Addictions Institute at Hospital del Mar and coordinator of the Mental Health Research Group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute will be the president of the organisation for the next four years. Up to now, he has been the Vice-president of the society. Dr. Víctor Pérez, Director of the Institute of Neuropsychiatry and Addictions (INAD) at Hospital del Mar, will be the President of the Spanish Society of Biological Psychiatry (Sociedad Española de Psiquiatría Biológica; SEPB) for the next four years. He was elected at the society's Ordinary General Assembly, held virtually on 29 October.
05/11/2020 - General information
The ICOD (Improving Cognition in Down Syndrome) project is being coordinated by the Integrated Pharmacology and Systems Neuroscience Research Group, led by Dr. Rafael de la Torre. It will trial a new therapy to treat cognitive deficits in Down Syndrome sufferers. Six institutions from Spain, France and Italy are taking part. A project led by the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), has received a six million euro development grant from the European Commission. The Improving Cognition in Down Syndrome (ICOD) project was one of 75 projects selected within the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Only nine projects coordinated by Catalan organisations will benefit from these grants, in the last year they are being awarded.
01/10/2020 - General information
Each year, around 20 million European citizens are affected from depression. Depression is a serious illness which impacts on all aspects of life, including work. While Small and Medium Sized enterprises particularly face substantial economic losses due to the global impact of COVID-19, the MENTUPP consortium anticipates, that capacities for mental health promotion and provision in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will be even more limited in the future. A second COVID-19 wave might further impact negatively on people affected by depression. This is why action on occupational mental health is urgently needed. Resources for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises "Limited capacities for mental health promotion and provision of adequate occupational mental health programmes for employees are a concern shared by most decision-makers in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)", says Prof. Ella Arensman, Coordinator of the MENTUPP project. In the EU, these businesses contribute to more than 90% of the economy. Particularly, SMEs in the construction, healthcare and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sectors have been associated with higher risk of mental health difficulties compared to other sectors. COVID-19 has significant short-term and long-term effects on the mental health people working in these sectors.
Més informació "EU-funded Mental Health Promotion and Intervention in Occupational Settings"
03/09/2020 - Press release
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded Dr. Arnau Busquets García, a Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), with a prestigious ERC Starting Grant. This recognition includes 1.5 million euros to develop a 5-year project. Grants from the ERC, which are part of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, are the main source of European funding for research excellence. They support highly innovative projects led by outstanding and internationally renowned researchers, with the aim of helping them to build their own teams and carry out pioneering research in Europe. In this year's edition, 3272 applications were submitted and 436 grants were awarded, for a total of 677 million euros. The recipients have 40 different nationalities and the projects will be developed in 25 different EU member states. The countries awarded the most grants are Germany (88 grants), the UK (62), the Netherlands (42), and France (38). Spain secured a total of 23 grants, 7 of which are going to Catalan research centers.
17/08/2020 - Press release
The journal is dedicating a prominent position to research on cannabis and its derivatives, its recreational use, the associated risks, and potential medical applications. It features articles by some of the most prominent figures in the field, under the editorship of Dr. Torrens and Dr. Maldonado. The July issue of the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology is dedicating a special section to the controversy over the globally growing trend to legalise the use of marijuana for certain recreational and medical uses. This has been edited by Dr. Marta Torrens, director of the Addictions Process Group at the Hospital del Mar Institute of Neuropsychiatry and Addictions (INAD) and coordinator of the Addictions Research Group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), and Dr. Rafael Maldonado, head of the Neuropharmacology Laboratory at the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences (CEXS) at Pompeu Fabra University and the IMIM. Together they authored an editorial on the subject for the journal.
27/07/2020 - Press release
World-Wide FINGERS (WW-FINGERS) is the first global network of clinical trials for risk reduction and prevention of dementia and Alzheimer´s disease through multidomain interventions. Spanish researchers from the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and the CITA Alzheimer Foundation participate in this network which convenes research teams from over 30 countries. The main scope, scientific strategy and activities of the WW-FINGERS network have been recently published in Alzheimer´s & Dementia. WW-FINGERS builds upon the successful experience of FINGER study: the Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability, led by Prof. Miia Kivipelto and her team (Karolinska Institutet, Sweden; University of Eastern Finland; Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare and Imperial College London, UK). This pioneering randomized clinical trial (RCT) demonstrated that a 2-year multidomain lifestyle intervention consisting of nutritional guidance, exercise, social stimulation, cognitive training, and control of vascular risk factors benefitted cognition in seniors at increased risk of dementia (Lancet 2015).
24/07/2020 - Institutional news
In the first edition of the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in Health Awards organised by ISCIII and promoted as part of the European project ORION (Open Responsible research and Innovation to further Outstanding kNowledge) three proposals from three different Health Research Institutes (HRI) have been honoured out of a total of 26 proposals received. One of these three proposals is an IMIM project: The name of the successful project is "Co-creation and citizen participation in the design of the PENSA Study on the Prevention of Cognitive Impairment in People with Subjective Memory Complaints". Presented by Natàlia Soldevila and Laura Forcano from the Integrated Pharmacology and Systems Neuroscience research group at the IMIM, this work stands out for its application of citizen participation in the design of a clinical trial, an added value that allows the project to be reoriented to better adapt to the needs and expectations of the participants.
08/07/2020 - Press release
Cannabis use can lead to behavioral changes, including reduced social interactions in some individuals. To better understand the phenomenon, Inserm researcher Giovanni Marsicano and his team from NeuroCenter Magendie (Inserm/Université de Bordeaux), in collaboration with University of Salamanca (Spain) professor, Juan P Bolaños and his team, have identified for the first time in mice the cerebral mechanisms underlying the relationship between cannabis and reduced sociability. Their findings have been published in Nature. Dr. Arnau Busquets, currently a Ramon y Cajal researcher in the IMIM's Integrated Pharmacology and Systems Neuroscience Research Group is one of the first authors of this work. He has been responsible for carrying out the in vivo part of the project in mice, during his postdoctoral period in Dr. Marsicano's team in Bordeaux. Dr. Busquets started his own group last September (https://www.imim.cat/programesrecerca/neurociencies/grfh/cell-type_mechanisms_in_normal_and_pathological_behavior/index.htm)
Més informació "Star-Shaped Brain Cells Shed Light on the Link Between Cannabis Use and Sociability"
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