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The IGTP is working to respond to COVID-19

- Campus Can Ruti, Institutional, Projects

The Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) is working alongside the hospital and at the service of the Ministry of Health of the Government of Catalonia to make all the necessary disposable material and resources available for the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19. The research groups at the centre are also working against the clock to prepare projects for the extraordinary competitive funding calls that have been issued to fund research into SARS-CoV-2 and the disease COVID-19.

From the first moment, the IGTP was a model of responsibility and reduced its activity on site to a minimum. Research has had to shut itself up at home and only the minimal essential services have remained open in the IGTP buildings. This means there are around 30 people going in every day.

In many cases the researchers at home have been preparing research projects for the extraordinary calls to investigate the virus and the disease. The Project Management Office has presented 15 projectes between those for the extraordinary ISCIII call and the extraordinary Biocat call, promoted by the Ministry of Health. In this last call, almost all the projects have passed to the second round.

All the material and PPE kits available at the IGTP have been inventoried and prepared as a reserve in case they are needed at the hospital, pending the instructions of the Ministry of Health. In the case of equipment, a nucleic acids extraction unit has been lent to support the laboratory carrying out the SARS-CoV-2 detection tests. Last week the Centre for Comparative Medicine and Bioimage (CMCiB) sent five ventilators and six multi-parameter monitors to the hospital to reinforce the intensive care units. The companies that work with the CMCiB have also been contacted and more ventilators have been located. Work in this respect is ongoing.

Our technical scientific services are also contributing, particularly from genomics and cytometry, to support all the COVID-19 projects that have already started on the Can Ruti Campus. In parallel, the CMCiB is working intensively on the validation of a new medical device that can provide the very necessary solutions required by intensive care patients.

The objective is to continue maintaining this balance between minimum services and contributing to overcoming the situation of a global pandemic and also our responsibility to work from home wherever possible.