Research against COVID19 from the Josep Carreras Institute
Research groups of the Institute are studying the relationship between sensitivity to SARS-CoV-2 and the immune system, markers of virus progression, new forms of diagnosis, and techniques for sterilizing surfaces to protect against infection.
The Josep Carreras Institute is investigating the relationship between the coronavirus and the immune system, its detection and diagnosis, and ways of eradicating it. Research Groups such as Cancer Epigenetics, Epigenetics and Immune Diseases, and Functional Cytomics, as also scientific-technical services such as the Bioinformatics, Genomics, and Proteomics units, are contributing with studies and resources to help overcome the COVID19.
The Cancer Epigenetics research group, led by Dr. Manel Esteller, is looking for genetic markers that could indicate whether we can predict the sensitivity of a person or another to both infection and the development of more or less severe symptoms. Dr. Esteller is also applying unexplored technologies for the early diagnosis of the virus. Besides, Dr. Esteller is involved in a project to measure the activity of the virus and validate ways to remove it from surfaces through the use of nanoparticles, which could be used, for example, to disinfect single-use protective materials such as masks, for reuse.
The ICFO (Catalan Institute of Photonic Sciences), IrsiCaixa (AIDS Research Institute), the Fight against AIDS Foundation, the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital in Badalona and the company B. Braun are also involved in this last project.
On the other hand, the Epigenetics and Immune Diseases group, led by Dr. Esteban Ballestar, and the Functional Cytomics group, led by Dr. Jordi Petriz, are running research in the areas of autoimmunity and infection, and diagnosis by the flow cytometry technique, respectively.
On the other hand, the Proteomic units of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC) and Barcelona Science Park (PCB), which are members of the Spanish Proteomics network, ProteoRed-ISCIII, together with the Proteomics unit of Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) and researchers from the IRSICAIXA and Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA) are working on a proof of concept using MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry to detect Covid-19 in patients. This technique, which is used to measure molecular weight of molecules, could allow us to detect differences in the molecular fingerprinting obtained from nasopharyngeal swab samples of people affected with COVID-19.