The Regional Minister of Health, Alba Vergés, presented the Charter of Commitment for gender equality on 22 October during the closing ceremony of the first Gender Summit in Health Sciences at CaixaForum Girona. The document was signed by the directors and representatives of the 19 health research centres and institutes in Catalonia, including Dr Jordi Surrallés, director of the São Paulo Research Institute, and Miriam Ors, deputy director. See more The Charter includes 12 commitments to end gender inequality in the research system in Catalonia. It was agreed, among others, to tackle vertical and horizontal wage inequality by the same responsibility and professional level; to eliminate the obstacles that prevent women from advancing in their scientific careers; and to promote changes in organisational culture and professional structure to eliminate systemic barriers, stereotypes and inequalities. In addition, it has been decided to carry out a one-year work plan to accelerate women’s advancement and leadership in health research.

Gender scissors

The Minister of Health, Alba Vergés, highlighted “the Department’s firm commitment to promoting the gender perspective in health policies and at the same time promoting changes in health research in Catalonia”. Vergés stressed that the data presented “show the so-called gender scissors” which, among others, she explained is translated with “lack of female leadership of the centres; in which women have less possibilities to receive funding for research and fewer invitations to give lectures and participate in panels, while few relevant positions in the authorship of publications. Faced with this situation, the councillor pointed out that “this summit -” leader in the European sphere and the first with real data- must serve to provide solutions to the problem “and added that the first step is with the Charter of Commitment, signed. In this sense, Vergés underlined some of the commitments of this Charter, such as now, that of tackling horizontal and vertical wage inequality, and that of eliminating the obstacles encountered by women in the transition between the completion of a doctorate and a stable professional career. “We cannot and do not want to lose talent,” she said during her speech. Vergés also stressed the commitment to train researchers and support them to include the gender perspective in research and innovation, and concluded that “the knowledge produced will benefit the entire population and not just men, half of the population.

Precisely, the studies presented during the summit indicate that significant steps have been taken, but that the so-called “gender scissors” are maintained. One of the most worrying aspects is the lack of women in the leadership positions of the centres. Once they finish their doctorate, the professional careers of men and women diverge and they see their promotion and advancement in the research career slowed down. The numbers presented during the day indicate that of the 7,167 people who work in the research centers, 3,907 (that is, 55%) are women; but they have it more difficult to progress in the research career so that, among other reasons, they have less access to funding to carry out their research. For example, of the 46 ICREA grants (the most prestigious in science) in Catalonia, only 20% are awarded to women. In addition, women get less money than men when research projects are presented: specifically, 19,000 euros less for each project.

Another problem that has been put on the table during the summit is that women are less likely to occupy relevant positions in the authorship of publications of scientific articles. 44% of the principal researchers are women, but at the time of publication there is only 28% female leadership.

The summit, promoted by the Department of Health and the Catalan Agency for Health Quality and Assessment (AQUA) in collaboration with the “la Caixa” Foundation, also brought together renowned international experts in the implementation of the gender perspective in research and biomedicine.

Drs. José Julve and Israel Fernández-Cadenas, from the Sant Pau Research Institute of Sant Pau-IIB, will participate this Sunday 27 October in the microchairs of the Science Festival, which this year will be held at the Moll de la Fusta. Attached you will find the link to consult timetables and spaces.

José Julve, member of the Research Group on Metabolic Bases of Cardiovascular Risk
Microcharlas: “We help your microbiota prevent obesity and diabetes.”

Israel Fernández-Cadenas, coordinator of the Pharmacogenomics and Neurovascular Genetics Research Group
Microcharlas: “Genetics and data analysis to prevent diseases such as stroke”.

https://www.barcelona.cat/barcelonaciencia/ca/espais-activitat/10-microxerrades?edicio=3402&tid=3376

Once again this year, the city’s most outstanding buildings, at an architectural level, open their doors to the public at the 48H Barcelona Open House. This year the building of the São Paulo Research Institute joins this initiative and can be visited on Saturday 26 October, from 10:00 to 14:00 and from 15:00 to 19:00.

https://www.48hopenhousebarcelona.org/edifici/institut-de-recerca-de-lhospital-de-la-santa-creu-i-sant-pau/

Mitochondrial antioxidants have a beneficial effect on metabolic alterations associated with obesity such as weight gain and insulin resistance, and may have consequences on heart function, according to researchers from the CIBER Cardiovascular Diseases (CIBERCV) of different research groups such as “Mechanisms regulating cardiovascular remodeling” coordinated by Dra. Cristina Rodríguez from the Research Institute of the Hospital de Sant Pau- IIB Sant Pau; researchers from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid-Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón; from the Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas de Barcelona (IIBB-CSIC) and from the Instituto de Biología y Genética Molecular (IBGM-CSIC / UV).

In this work col – elaborated, published in the FASEB Journal, the interest of developing antioxidant drugs aimed at blocking mitochondrial oxidative stress for the improvement of metabolic alterations observed in obese patients is emphasized. Therefore, the role of oxidative stress in metabolic alterations has been evaluated in rats, fed a diet high in fat or low for 7 weeks that were treated with MitoQ, a mitochondrial antioxidant, and also the mitochondrial protein profile of visceral adipose tissue of obese patients has been analyzed.

Link to the reference article:
The role of Mitochondrial oxidative stress in the Metabolic alteration in diet-induced Obesity in rats
Gemma Marín-Royo, Cristina Rodríguez, Aliaume Le Pape, Raquel Jurado-López, María Luaces, Alfonso Antequera, José Martínez-González, Francisco V Souza-Net, María Luisa Nieto, Ernesto Martínez-Martínez, Victoria Cachofeiro.

The Sant Pau Biomedical Research Institute (IIB Sant Pau) with the Complex Diseases Genomics Research Group, led by Dr. José Manuel Soria, organised the seminar “predictions of thrombosis in oncological patients” by Dr. Andrés Muñoz Martín, from the Digestive Cancer Unit of the Medical Oncology Service of the Gregorio Marañón General University Hospital. The conference will take place on 30 October at 3 p.m. in the multipurpose rooms.

More information seminar

Next Saturday 19 October, the weekly programme “La ciencia de la salud” on La 2 of TVE returns, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.. This first broadcast will be dedicated to Alzheimer’s disease with the participation of different Sant Pau professionals.

On Tuesday, October 22, the classic guitar concert will take place in the program of solidarity activities for the Precipit project, which will take place at 7 pm at the  Recinto Modernista de Sant Pau. Adjunto encontrará el programa con los siguientes conciertos. Attached you will find the program with the following concerts.

From the Directorate of the Institute, we inform you that the Research Institute of the Sant Pau-IIB Hospital of Sant Pau adheres to the CERCA and ACER Communiqué on the ruling of Catalan political and social leaders.

To view the press release, click here

The Huntington ‘s Disease Society of America has awarded the Human Biology Project Fellowship to neuropsychologist Saúl Martínez-Huerta, of the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Research Group, led by Dr. Jaume Kulisevsky.

The project entitled “Neurobiological mechanisms subserving de differential expression and rate of progression of cognitive impairment in Huntington’s disease” will focus on studying over the next two years the mechanisms involved in cognitive heterogeneity manifested by people affected by this neurodegenerative disease.

The research aims to identify mechanisms that coexist with the primary cause of Huntington’s disease (the mutation in the HTT gene) and that favour faster cognitive deterioration and a higher rate of neuronal loss in brain areas previously considered little affected in the context of this disease.

Dr. Mar Gomis, from the Pharmacy Service of the Sant Pau Hospital and the Pharmacy Research Group of the IIB Sant Pau, has been coordinating a new comprehensive monitoring platform, MedPlan +, which can be applied to any pathology and is ideally aimed at a multi-morbid and polymedicated patient. This platform allows individualized and personalized monitoring of adherence, lifestyles and side effects in real time.

The emergence of new technologies in health has led to many experts talking about their benefits in disease control. On the other hand, the extension among the population of the use of smartphones offers a channel to patients as a tool to help them take medication, to promote self-management of comorbidities and encourage professional-patient interaction. In this sense, Medplant + provides support from the clinical team to the patient at the same time that it empowers him in the daily monitoring of his therapy and illness.

The platform is divided into different modules: an agenda that establishes the patient’s medication plan (with intake schedules, reminders and recommendations); self-monitoring program of comorbidities (such as tension or weight) in a personalized way. Also from the treatment module, it is possible to consult information on the medicine through a link with the medicine database (CIMA) of the Spanish Medicines Agency and visualize all the registers that have been introduced in the evolution module, where the patient will find graphs and tables that will allow him to better control his constants and biomesures. As a more advanced option, the module for interaction with healthcare professionals allows you to communicate with the healthcare team at any time of the day through the application’s own messaging service. In addition, the platform has a new videoconferencing system with an associated agenda to be able to carry out non-presential visits and informative brochures on health prevention within the advice module.

The platform has already demonstrated positive results in transplant patients, significantly improving therapeutic adherence thanks to the possibility of two-way interaction with the professional and the possibility of having a private health area on the mobile phone.

The Sant Pau Research Institute – IIB Sant Pau will be the protagonist of the programme “Fet al país” dedicated to research, which will be broadcast from today on all local television channels. A programme focused on research carried out by the Genomics Complex Disease Research Group. https://www.recercasantpau.cat/grup/genomica-de-malalties-complexes/

“Fet al país” is an economic program that closely follows the production process of the products produced in our country. With a simple and informative language, it explains all the secrets of the business world and of the Catalan companies that export all over the world.

Click here to find out which local television stations will broadcast the programme.

These patients have been included at the Santa Creu i Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona by the team headed by Dr. Alessandro Sionis and at the La Paz University Hospital in Madrid by the team headed by Dr. José Luis López-Sendón.

The trial is a multicenter international in vitro study designed to validate the performance of Apo J-Glyc as a novel biomarker for the early detection of Myocardial Ischaemia. The validation of this novel biomarker will be an important breakthrough in the cardiovascular field, as currently there are no specific biomarkers for the early detection of ischemia. This early diagnosis will allow to identify the event when the cardiac damage is still reversible, minimizing the consequences of the disease.

The company plans to enrol approximately 646 patients and in the trial that will initially involve six sites at four leading hospitals in Spain and UK. Study participation for each patient will be approximately 12 months which will allow not only to evaluate the diagnostic value of the biomarker but also its prognostic and risk-stratification added value.

The Cochrane Iberoamerican Center, together with Cochrane Madrid and the Ministry of Health, celebrated on October 1 the day “The Cochrane Library in the framework of evidence-based healthcare” in which they participated: Faustino Blanco González, Secretary General of Health and Consumer Affairs; the Dra. Pilar Aparicio, general director of Public Health, Quality and Innovation; the Dr. Xavier Bonfill, director of the Epidemiology Service of Sant Pau and the Ibero-American Cochrane Center; Mark Wilson, CEO of Cochrane and Dr. Karla Soares, editorial director of the Cochrane Library.

You can check the full program here.

The Ministry of Health finances the subscription to the Cochrane Library open to all citizens of Spain since 2003, when the then Minister of Health Ana Pastor came to our Hospital to sign the corresponding agreement. In those 16 years, tens of millions have been accessed by users. The launch of the new Cochrane Library, which includes a series of improvements with respect to the previous version (you can check them here)was released a year ago, but until now the official presentation has not been made. It was a good time, therefore, to remind all health professionals of the availability of this valuable tool that provides reliable evidence and helps to make informed decisions in order to achieve better health. Since the release of this new version of the Cochrane Library in Spanish, nearly 60,000 full-time documents have been downloaded every month.

During the day, several short communications (in video format) of Latin American personalities linked to Cochrane were also reproduced (can be seen here).
In the afternoon, Ivan Solà, Head of Documentation at the Cochrane Ibero-American Center, gave the workshop “Searches for systematic reviews and other materials in the Cochrane Library”, from which all places were exhausted.

Dr. Jordi Ordóñez Llanos, of the Cardiovascular Biochemistry Research Group of the IIB Sant Pau, and a clinician at the Biochemistry Service of the Hospital, has been part of the group of experts that published the document “Role of BNP vs. NT- ProBNP Testing in the Age of New Drug Therapies: Sacrolitrile-Valsartan “at Clinical Chemistry. In the publication, in the format “Questions and Answers”, a group of experts debates controversial topics of their specialty. In this case, the role of natriuretic peptides in the control of treatment with Sacubitril / Valsartan in patients with heart failure is to be clarified. Clinical Chemistry is the No. 1 journal of the Clínic Laboratory specialty.

Researchers at Sant Pau have recently published in the Annals of Neurology a study that shows that the presence of depression in Parkinson’s patients is a risk factor in the appearance of behavioural addictions. The work has been led by Dr. Jaume Kulisevsky, head of the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Group at the IIB Sant Pau and head of the Movement Disorders Unit of the Neurology Service at the Sant Pau Hospital, and Dr. Juan Marín Lahoz of the same group and unit.

Parkinson’s disease is mainly known for the tremors and mobility difficulties it generates. Many patients whose treatment allows them to have normal mobility have behavioural addictions such as pathological gambling, hypersexuality or compulsive shopping. The consequences of these disorders can be devastating for patients and their families. For this reason, researchers are working to identify patients at risk of behavioural addiction with the aim of carrying out personalised treatments to reduce the risk. Depression is a very common disorder in Parkinson’s disease that can affect up to 40% of patients at some point. It often appears a few years before the diagnosis of the disease. In recent years, some studies have shown that the symptoms of depression were more frequent in patients with behavioural addictions than in those who did not have them. However, it was not known if depression was a consequence of suffering addictions or if it could be a precursor of addictions. “What we wanted to confirm is that depression plays a role in the onset of behavioral addictions in Parkinson’s disease, we showed how depression precedes the onset of addictions up to 5 years and that the risk depends on other factors, such as age or the main genes associated with Parkinson’s disease,” explains Dr. Kulisevsky.

“There were some risk markers of behavioural addictions, but their application required complex techniques such as the analysis of multiple genes, so far have not led to any change in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, but the presence of depression is a risk factor very easily identifiable in a conventional visit which allows to customize the treatment to obtain the maximum quality of life of each patient, “adds Dr. Marin. The study was carried out within the framework of the PPMI (Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative) study promoted by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for the Parkinson’s study. This study tracks about 1,500 people worldwide to understand and cure Parkinson’s disease. This project has been financed with grants from the Fundación La Marató de TV3, the Fondo de Investigación en Salud and the CIBER de Enfermedades neurodegenerativas of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III.

Reference article

The Activa’TT Association, formed by researchers from Sant Pau, starts a crowdfunding campaign to raise money in favor of research into vascular diseases. One of the first actions is the campaign presentation video that you can see at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/activattdia-mundial-contra-la-trombosis.

Within the framework of the next World Day against Thrombosis, the researchers organized two activities: The Chronic Venous Insufficiency Prevention Campaign, which will take place in the hall of the Hospital de Sant Pau on October 11 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the presentation of the documentary by Alex Txikon, “Pumori, La hija de la montaña”, on October 13 at 7 pm at the Center Lluïsos d’Horta.

Activa’TT por la Salud is a non-profit association established in 2015 by health professionals from the Sant Pau Biomedical Research Institute (IIB Sant Pau) and the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, in order to inform and raise awareness of the importance of vascular diseases and to raise funds for research in these diseases to improve research, its prevention, diagnosis and treatment. For this reason, it promotes training, research and information activities, aimed at patients, health professionals and society in general.

Events organized around the World Day against Thrombosis
October 11 9-14 h: Campaign for the Prevention of Chronic Venous Insufficiency: Ultrasound of the veins of the legs to discard varicose veins and thrombosis. Hall of the Hospital de Sant Pau.
October 13 at 19 h: Presentation at the Lluïsos d’Horta Center of Alex Txikon’s documentary, “Pumori, La hija de la montaña”. Get your invitation here: https://activatt.com/

Lluïsos d’Horta
Carrer Feliu i Codina, 7
08031 Barcelona
Metro Linea 5: Horta

Five components of the Sakana-Pumori Guipúzcoa expedition lost their lives on October 17, 2001 on Mount Pumori (7.161 meters high) as they were surprised by an avalanche when trying to make the summit. The other five components of the expedition could only give notice of what happened and, after trying an impossible rescue, they had to go back.

A year later, Arantxa Gurrutxaga and Peio Arrue, parents of Beñat (one of the dead climbers), returned to Nepal with a double objective: to approach the site of the tragedy to remember and pay homage to the disappeared and to try to find a girl from Nepal who appeared with his son in the last photo he had of him.

Thus begins the story of Suku Maya and the Arrue Gurrutxaga family, who is the driver of the documentary.

The Sant Pau Biomedical Research Institute (IIB Sant Pau) in collaboration with Dr. Ariadna Tibau of the Clinical Oncology Research Group and the Oncology and Palliative Care Service of the Sant Pau Hospital organize the seminar “The use of aggregate clinical trials data to address uncertain effects of treatment” by Dr. . Eitan Amir, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Division of Medical Oncology, University of Toronto, Canada. The meeting on this occasion will be held in the IR Room of the Sant Pau Research Institute (Sant Quintí, 77, street level) at 8.15 am.

The Sant Pau Biomedical Research Institute (IIB Sant Pau) in collaboration with the Research Group on Molecular and Therapeutic Pathology of Atherothrombotic and Ischemic Diseases, led by Prof. Lina Badimon, organises the seminar “Assessing vascular and ventricular function in cardiovascular research. New tools provide new insight “by Dr. Javier Bermejo, head of the non-invasive cardiology and cardiovascular imaging section of the Cardiology Service of the Gregorio Marañón General University Hospital. The appointment is next September 25 at 15.00 in the multipurpose rooms.

The Dementia Neurobiology Group and the Genetics in Neurodegenerative Diseases Group of the Sant Pau Biomedical Research Institute (IIB Sant Pau), together with the Memory Unit of the Neurology Service of the Sant Pau Hospital, validate a technique for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease. The study led by the researchers of San Pablo, which internationally validates the new technique, is entitled “Agreement of Amyloid PET and CSF Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease where Lumipulse” and has recently been published in the journal Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology.

Early detection of Alzheimer’s using biomarkers

The clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease can sometimes be complicated, either because the symptoms are not very specific or because they are very incipient. In recent years, the scientific community has made a great effort to develop biomarkers of the disease, i.e. biochemical and neuroimaging analysis techniques to facilitate early diagnosis in these cases. The search for biomarkers and the study of their clinical usefulness for the early detection of the disease has been one of the priority lines of research of researchers in Sao Paulo in the last ten years.

How the study has been done

The study involved nearly 100 patients and volunteers from the SPIN study (https://santpaumemoryunit.com/ca/linies-recerca/cohort-spin/) who underwent a lumbar puncture to obtain cerebrospinal fluid. These same participants underwent a brain imaging test (PET) to visualize the presence or absence of cerebral amyloid deposits. In the study, the values of four biomarkers in the fluid analyzed by an automated technique were compared with the amyloid PET images for each participant.

Main results

The comparison between cerebrospinal fluid and amyloid PET allowed us to establish the levels of these four proteins (or “cut-off points”) in the cerebrospinal fluid that best detected the presence or absence of cerebral amyloid deposits. The combination of two proteins, Aß42 and Aß40, allowed to discriminate better the presence/absence of cerebral amyloid than Aß42 in an isolated way. In addition, in this study the Sant Pau researchers have collaborated with the company that develops the reagents to find the normal values of these proteins in healthy people, as was done with cholesterol or glucose in the past. This step is essential to define normal values.

Relevance of the study

Until now, the analysis of Alzheimer’s markers in cerebrospinal fluid was done using manual techniques (ELISA), which implied a great variability between analyses and hindered their implementation in clinical practice. Recently, automated analysis techniques have been developed, much more reproducible and consistent for use as a diagnostic tool. This study allows us to establish optimal cut-off points in our population using an automated technique (Lumipulse). The validation carried out in this study has allowed that since the beginning of the year the analysis of cerebrospinal fluid for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease has been extended from the field of research to its use in routine care at the Hospital de Sant Pau. It is the first hospital to implement this automated technique in its healthcare routine. These analyses make it possible to confirm or rule out the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in patients with very mild or non-specific symptoms of the disease.

Considerations

Although analyses using automated techniques are much more consistent, there are still certain limitations that cause determinations to vary between different centers. Therefore, the application of the cut-off points detailed in this study should be done cautiously in other centers where the conditions of extraction, processing, and storage of samples differ from those applied in our study.

Reference article:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acn3.50873

Dr. Jordi Sierra, director of the Sant Pau Haematology Service and head of the Oncological Haematology and Transplantation Group at the Sant Pau Research Institute, is one of the driving forces behind the RET-A project ‘Strategic Reflection on the Management and Implementation of New Advanced Therapies’, a pioneering initiative in Spain that will be the first think tank ‘(ideas laboratory) to deepen, analyse and expose the challenges and opportunities of new cell therapies.

This analysis will try to answer four key questions: what is the starting map, what would be the desired comprehensive care process, what are the innovative models of economic evaluation to apply and what is the future of these therapies. At its first meeting, the CORE Advisory Group, in which the Sociedad Española de Directivos de la Salud (SEDISA) participates, among others, met to propose the most appropriate framework, design and scope of the project, on which the technical working groups will subsequently work.
This driving group is made up of, in addition to Dr. Jordi Sierra, for the president of the Sociedad Española de Farmacia Hospitalaria (SEFH), Dr. Miguel Ángel Calleja; the director of the Hematology Service of the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón in Madrid, Dr. José Luis Díez; the president of SEDISA, Joaquín Estévez; Doctor Ramón García Sanz, haematologist at the University Hospital of Salamanca and elected president of the Spanish Society of Haematology and Haemotherapy (SEHH); the director of the Haematology Service at the University Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid, Doctor Joaquín Martínez and the president of the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM), Doctor Ruth Vera.