09/07/2012

The European Commission has approved the 2013 work program of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). This one is the last FP7 call before Horizon 2020, the innovation and research programme from 2014 to 2020, strongly linked to the strategy Europe 2020 for the growth and the occupation. For this reason, the Representation in Barcelona of the Commission has celebrated this Monday, 9th of July, a meeting in which Josefina Enfedaque, expert of the General Direction of the European Commission, has presented the work program and the 2013 call.In addition, three projects of Catalonia funded by FPY have been presented: ARISE, from IDIBAPS, introduced by Dr. Anna Planas, MYOCEAN introduced by Araceli Pi, and EUROHYP, the project coordinated by VHIR explained by Dr. Marta Rubiera. The research group in neurovascular diseasesof at VHIR and the Unit of Ictus of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital lead two workgroups of a large-scale study without precedents on the treatment of ictus. The project is funded with almost 11 million Euros and is the major clinical trial in phase III on the effects of the hipotermia as protector of the cerebral hurt after suffering an ictus or cerebro-vascular accident. To cool the brain during the six hours immediately later to an ictus to temperatures near 33-34 ºC might be key to reduce the magnitude of the cerebral hurt. The results would benefit hundreds of thousands of patients each year. Vall d'Hebron will be also the center that coordinates the study in Spain, as well as the headquarters of the biobank with the samples of all the patients who will be included in the European study.This study called EUROHYP-1, presented last March, improves the perspectives of survival of patients with ictus and can be a change in the approach to the attention of patients affected in the whole world, compared to the introduction of the intravenous trombolisis in 1995.