With collaborative projects with other hospitals in Barcelona, the group is also a member of a research network coordinated by the European Medicines Agency. It is the European Network of Centres for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance (ENCePP). The group is also a member of the PROTECT group, a public/private consortium founded by the European Commission’s Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and is part of the WHO Centre for Research and Training in Pharmacoepidemiology.

Focused on childhood cancer, the group is made up of clinical and basic researchers, whose aim is to discover new therapeutic targets and develop new treatments by using animal models.

Specifically, they are working on rhabdomyosarcoma and neuroblastoma, two types of high risk tumours in paediatrics. This type of cancer has many side effects in survivors as a consequence of aggressive treatments. The group is therefore also working on new alternative therapies to improve safety and success.

In research dedicated to viral hepatitis, the group covers aetiological, epidemiological, pathogenic and therapeutic aspects. Among the specific lines, they are working on molecular biology, immune response and treatment of Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B, based on their genomic variability and resistances.

The group’s other major focus is the study of cirrhosis of the liver and pathologies that derive therefrom, such as portal hypertension, hepatocellular carcinoma, as well as aspects related to liver transplant.

A deeper understanding of the pathways involved in the progression of these cancers helps to advance the development of prevention and treatment strategies. The collaboration between basic and clinical researchers allows us to identify the issues to resolve in the way we treat patients with urological diseases in a more simple way. This allows strategic elements to be applied that, starting with specific clinical aspects, study the basic molecular mechanisms of the progression of the pathology.

The group’s lines of research include a clinical research unit, with doctors dedicated 24 hours a day and 7 days a week to researching in direct relation to patients. They also look at pathologies related to their field of research, such as sepsis and septic shock, heart attack and vital support, neurocritical pathology, respiratory insufficiency or acute renal insufficiency, infectious diseases in critical patients, or aspects that derive from solid organ transplant.

The research group focuses mainly on stress-related ageing in cells. Focusing on those which have a role in cancer, the laboratory develops genetic screenings based on detecting new genes related to cell proliferation. The research in this sense is based on using different cellular models: primary human cells, murine cells or immortalised cells capable of ageing.

The Infectious Diseases research group combines basic and clinical research, with an international perspective. Its research programmes are dedicated to diseases such as tuberculosis and Chagas disease.

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The Early Clinical Development of Drugs group promotes the early development of medicines and translational research through assessment and treatment of patients in phase I trials. They work on preliminary trials for targeted treatments aimed at cell signalling and cancer stem cells. They are also developing the first clinical trials in humans with targeted treatments, rational combinations of selective treatments, biomarker trials and trials in molecularly selected patient populations.

The group’s lines of research focus on severe bacterial, mycotic and viral infections in this context. It also deals with diagnosis, prevention and management issues, which are strategic in nature. To better control infections in the Intensive Care Unit, the groups also takes part in various projects relating to the development, execution and evaluation of care measures, with inter-departmental support from nursing and other research professionals.

By studying intratumoural heterogeneity, we are working to better understand the molecular mechanisms involved in cancer stem cells/stem cells. Developing methods for non-invasive molecular diagnosis by studying circulating biomarkers, and creating brain tumour models derived from patients in rats. 

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