Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute: from research on paediatric illnesses to neuroscience
Promoting collaborative research to design new clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic protocols to benefit patients and society in general. This was the main topic of the 2nd Science Day of Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute (IRSJD), held on February 1, at the Faculty of Biology of the University of Barcelona.
Promoting collaborative research to design new clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic protocols to benefit patients and society in general. This was the main topic of the 2nd Science Day of Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute (IRSJD), held on February 1, at the Faculty of Biology of the University of Barcelona.
This science session, which gathered 160 participants, was opened by Marçal Pastor, professor from the Faculty of Biology and director of the Institute of Biomedicine of the UB (IBUB), and Francesc Palau, lecturer from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the UB and director of the IRSJD. Manel Sabés, lecturer from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), gave the conference: “Sincrotró Alba: aplicacions en Salut”.
During the sessions, several scientific collaboration projects by the affiliated teams of Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute were presented. This consortium is integrated by research groups of two teaching hospitals ─Sant Joan de Déu Childrenʼs Hospital (HSJD) and Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu (PSSJD)─ and three university institutes, from IBUB and from the Institute of Neurosciences of the UB (UBNeuro), and the Research Centre for Biomedical Engineering (CREB) of Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.
Within the framework of this session, the IBUB and UBNeuro collaboration projects that were presented are focused on the study of genetic bases of rare diseases -such as muscular dystrophy- to design new therapeutic strategies, and the identification of new diagnostic biomarkers on encephalopathy in children. Regarding children medicine, research lines on paediatric oncology (in particular, the study of drug-resistant mechanisms in the embryonic development, and the neurocognitive development (identification of electrophysiological development markers on babies and training of the executive function and brain connectivity).
This scientific meeting was also the framework to debate on future collaboration projects, and open new options to promote the direction of doctoral studies and incorporation of employment offers for young researchers within IRSJD-affiliated institutions, among other interests. The future aim of the Institute is to promote the institutional collaboration to progress on research on neurosciences, paediatric oncology, metabolism, inflammation and immune response, mental health and epidemiology, apart from promoting transparency and technological innovation in the field of health and biomedicine.
In the framework of IRSJD, the incorporation of an expert on scientific management and the display of the institutional web are factors to contribute to the dynamization and easing scientific collaborations and the research activity in all the participating groups.