The SBU received 400.000€ from “La Marató de TV3” 2017 edition

• Funds collected by La Marató onits 2017 edition will finance 36 research projects on infectious diseases.
• The 4% of the total amountawarded goes to the SBU for the research on Zika virus and Porphyromonasgingivalis, a periodontalpathogen.

Yesterday, Núria Verdaguer and F. Xavier Gomis Rüth received the “La Marató” award for their projects on infectious diseases at a ceremony celebrated at the Academy of Medical and Health Sciences of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. Funds collected by TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio on 2017 edition of “La Marató de TV3” will finance 36 research projects to create new prevention and diagnostic tools, as well as more efficient treatments with the aim of gaining more years and more quality of life for the patients.

The evening was chaired by Elsa Artadi, Councilor of the Presidency of the Generalitat of Catalonia, and also had the presence of Laura Pelay, secretary general of the Department of Health, Núria Llorach, vice president of the Catalan Broadcasting Corporation and from the Patronage of the La Marató de TV3 Foundation, by Dolors Sintes, vice president of the Academy of Medical and Health Sciences of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, by Lluís Bernabé, director of the La Marató de TV3 Foundation, and Albert Barberà , general director of Research and Innovation of the Department of Health and coordinator of the Scientific Advisory Committee. The journalist Xavi Abad, director of the program La Marató de TV3 of 2017, has been in charge of conducting the event.

The project presented by Núria Verdaguer, from the Virus and Large Biological Complexes, in collaboration with Elisa Martí-Gorostiza from the Developmental Biology department at the Molecular Biology Institute of Barcelona , is awarded with 200.000€. The aim of the project is to unveil the molecular mechanisms of Zika virus to induce congenital neutopatic diseases.

F. Xavier Gomis-Rüth project, from Proteolysis laboratory, is about the study of the Porphyromonas gingivalis sortase to make new advances on the tratment of this periodontal pathogen. The project is awarded with 195.500€. With this succesfull selection process results, the SBU gathers the 4% of the total ammount collected by La Marató 2017. 36 research projects on infectious diseases

The 9.8 million euros collected in the 2017 edition of La Marató have made it possible to sensitize society and drive research into infectious diseases, which cause one in three deaths in the world. The 55 award-winning teams will work for the next three years to find answers to a set of pathologies that, according to experts, will become a serious public health problem in the coming years. Of the total of the awarded projects, 24 are unitary and 12 coordinated between two or more research institutions.

The 36 winning projects, according to the decision of the Board of Trustees and the Scientific Advisory Committee, are those have been better valued from 214 candidates. The Catalan Health and Quality Assessment Agency (AQUAS) coordinated an international review process in which 103 experts in infectious diseases evaluated proposals according to their quality and methodology, scientific, health and social relevance, and the innovative value, among others. In 2023, the Foundation will announce the research results obtained in a scientific symposium.

With this new grants for research, in 26 years of development, La Marató de TV3 has already awarded more than 800 projects, which have contributed remarkable advances in society health.