Page 66 - CIBERES-2015-eng

Research Groups
Group 16
Programme: Asthma
Lead Researcher: Muñoz Gall, Xavier
Group members
STAFF MEMBERS: Ojanguren Arranz, Íñigo.
ASSOCIATED MEMBERS: Álvarez Fernández, Antonio | Bravo Masgoret, Carlos | Cruz Carmona, Ma Jesús | De Gracia Roldán, Javier | Ferrer Sancho, Jaime | Genover Llimona, Ma Teresa | Gómez Olles, Susana | Lloberes Canadell, Patricia | Martí Beltrán, Sergi | Miravitlles Fernández, Marc | Monforte Torres, Víctor | Orriols Martínez, Ramon | Roca Gas, Oriol | Rodríguez González, Esther | Román Broto, Antonio | Romero Santo Tomas, Odile | Ruano Burgos, Laura | Sampol Rubio, Gabriel | Untoria Corral, María Dolores | Vendrell Relat, Montserrat
Main lines of research
The activity of basic and clinical research of the group focuses mainly in areas of inflammation and repair, respiratory failure and tissue hypoxia, and there is complementarity and interrelation of these areas for the study of diseases such as asthma, COPD, pul- monary fibrosis, infections, transplants, pulmonary hypertension and sleep-disordered breathing (SDB).
Specifically, within the research in asthma the group is working in the MEGA project aimed at increasing knowledge about the molecular mechanisms of asthma as well as to study the parameters that can determine long-term changes in the patient’s condi- tion and treatments that can influence the progres- sion of the disease. In short, the group aims to better understand the natural history of disease in order to reduce its incidence. We believe that the key to a better understanding of asthma is to carry out an in- tegrated approach, in which immunological, genetic and environmental factors that define the relevant characteristics of the disease are analyzed.
In the line of pulmonary fibrosis, our studies have shown that it is possible to determine the causes of this disease in half of the cases after the completion of a clinical study in depth. The group has shown that a major cause of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is exposure to minimal but persistent antigen quan- tities. Ultimately, it is the disease called hypersensi- tivity pneumonitis crónica. In this research the group has a murine model of hypersensitivity pneumonitis that will be significant in the near future to see the effect of different treatments as well as to study the pathophysiological pathways of this disease.
Our center is currently one of the 7 hospitals in the country where lung transplants are performed and one of the most active in this field, which places it in one of the top European and world level. With the unique opportunity generated by the lung transplant program at our hospital, the group is actively work- ing on the inclusion of samples in the CibeRes bio- bank.
66 I Annual report 2015 I CIBERES