Published by: IDIBAPS Rosselló, 149-153 08036 Barcelona Editorial board IDIBAPS Scientific Coordination Office Art direction & graphic design Marc Montalà www.marcmontala.com Cover photo © Irene Portolés © IDIBAPS 2019 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC REPORT 2018 INDEX 08 Foreword IDIBAPS Director’s foreword About IDIBAPS Staff Research and innovation outputs Funding Institutional projects Scientific facilities Training Communication and public engagement News 56 Area 1 Biological aggression and response mechanisms 94 Area 2 Respiratory, cardiovascular and renal pathobiology and bioengineering 152 Area 3 Liver, digestive system and metabolism 218 Area 4 Clinical and experimental neuroscience 276 Area 5 Oncology and haematology 332 Transversal research groups 343 Team and group leaders index ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC REPORT 2018 FOREWORD IDIBAPS © Patricia Solé Director’s foreword It is a great privilege and satisfaction to present in this 2018 Annual Report the activities and outstanding achievements of all the people working at IDIBAPS. Our scientific contributions are improving the understanding of the diseases we study and are changing the way we practice medicine. Our commit- ment to society stimulates us to spread this knowledge and these values to citizens of all ages. From the institutional perspective, I would like to highlight the work to culminate our new strategic plan (2018-2022), which was discussed by a broad representation of the research and management communities. An analysis of the current situation of biomedical research and the social and scientific challenges that we all face have led us to define the strategic objectives and actions that will serve as a roadmap for addressing the complex situation in which we work. Major effort will be dedicated to consoli- dating and improving excellence in translational research, attracting and retaining talent, particularly with the crucial task of generational renewal and the need to promote the clinician scientist career. We need to reinforce innovation and technology translation to attain the highest impact in clinical practice and optimize the resources to achieve the desired objectives. Next year will be crucial for the institutional fusion of IDIBAPS and Fundació Clínic per a la Recerca Biomèdica (SUMA project), which should facilitate research in the Clínic Barcelona Campus. This year, the Board of Governors accepted the nomination of Prof José María Mato as new President of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), replacing Prof Jesús Ávila, who remains as member of the SAB. We welcome Prof Amparo Cano, Full Professor of the Autonomous University of Madrid and researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Research “Alberto Sols”, and Dr Pura Muñoz, ICREA researcher at Pompeu Fabra University, as new members of the SAB,replacing Dr Guadalupe García-Tsa, Roberto Grozman, Bartolome Celli and Miguel Ángel Pozo. We are extremely grateful to all of them for their contributions to the success of IDIBAPS. The SAB is instrumental in guaranteeing the high standards in the scientific goals of the Institute. This year, the Direction and Administration of IDIBAPS also made an extra effort to provide all the key performance Indicators (KPIs) required by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) to renew our accreditation as . In addition, we compiled all the documents requested by Fundación Científica de la Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer (FC-AECC) to obtain the new accreditation as a recognized center in Cancer Research. The major strength of IDIBAPS continues to be the intense and excellent scientific production of its researchers, who in 2018 have maintained the high level reached in previous years. Of more than 1,100 original articles published, almost 350 (31%) were in first-decile journals and 170 (16%) in top journals (impact factor over 10). Our researchers also published 314 reviews and editorial articles, which unders- cores the high level of international leadership of our researchers. These excellent contributions encom- pass a broad spectrum of activities, from novel discoveries that are changing treatment standards to basic studies that improve understanding of the diseases in question. It would be difficult to summarize the tremendous amount of contributions, but some examples worthy of mention include the seminal contributions in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, nosocomial pneumonia, cardiac arrhythmias, and the use of stem cells for the treatment of chronic inflammatory bowel disease. They have also provided important novel information on the evolution of diseases such as autoimmune encephalitis and hepatitis C. From a more basic perspective, our scientists have developed animal models for understan- ding liver fibrosis and treatment of cirrhosis, and have elucidated the genome-wide epigenomic modifications that shape the development of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. I should also mention the 39 international clinical guidelines, in which our researchers have participated, setting the standards for diagnostic procedures and therapeutic management of a variety of diseases–clear proof of the institutio- nal spirit and commitment to translate research into clinical practice. To sustain this production activity, IDIBAPS researchers have raised a significant amount of national and international funds, with more than 200 new projects from competitive and private sources. Indeed, IDIBAPS appears to be one of the national institutions with a better success rate in the ISCIII and H2020 programs. In 2018, two groups from IDIBAPS obtained a prestigious ERC Synergy grant in collaboration with two groups from CNAG-CRG to participate in the international project of the Human 9 Cell Atlas and study the chronic lymphocytic leukemia at a single cell level. Three groups obtained the highly competitive grants from the La Caixa Health program, two groups participate in major European consortiums funded by the FC-AECC, together with charities from the UK (CRUK) and Italy (AIRC) to study hepatocellular carcinoma and early manifestations of hematological disorders, and one group obtained a PO1 grant from the National Institutes of Health of the USA. A special extraordinary achievement that deserves our deepest gratitude is the commitment and generosity of more than 1,600 donors raising more than one million euros, which has made it possible to initiate the immunotherapy program with the innovative CAR-T cell strategies in the project that we have named the ARI-project, after the lovely person who inspired all of us in this endeavor and who we all miss. None of all this would have been possible without the commitment of our researchers. In 2018, we welcomed two new junior group leaders, Patricia Pérez-Galán as head of the group Microenviron- ment in lymphoma pathogenesis and therapy and Virginia Amador as head of the group Functional characterization of oncogenic mechanisms in lymphomagenesis. Our Junior Group Leader Iñaki Martín-Subero was also awarded an ICREA professor position. We should all be proud of the recognition of Dr Àlvar Agustí as the 2018 Clinical Biomedical Research awardee of the Lilly Foundation and of the inclusion of 13 of our researchers among the 1% most cited investigators according to Clarivate Analytics. IDIBAPS is firmly committed to promoting the education of the young scientific community. In 2018, 96 students defended their theses. We have organized 41 institutional seminars and a special mention goes to our Stepping-Stone training program, which seeks to provide young researchers at IDIBAPS with the non-scientific tools and skills that are key to the development of their careers. One of the major difficulties we have continued to face in 2018 is limited institutional funding for renewing and improving our support infrastructure. Nevertheless, IDIBAPS core facilities are making a tremendous effort to help our scientists reach their objectives. The activity of our five core facilities has increased significantly, providing almost 600 services. In 2018, the Biobank, the KTT and the Clinical Trials Unit, were recognized by the ISCIII as key participants in the respective national networks, Red Nacional de Biobancos, ITEMAS and SCREN. Of particular importance was the grant obtained from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities to renew our informatics infrastructure. This support will allow us to meet the needs of our groups and expand the power of the many projects developed in our institution on the generation and analysis of biomedi- cal big data. Science needs to reach and permeate our society. We have developed new initiatives to reinforce our commitment in this regard. In 2018, we organized 48 activities that reached 2,131 people of all ages, from 4 years old in the Science Summer Camps and programs for young students who want to follow a scientific career, to the most elderly attending the talks at the Urgell Civic Center. It is notable that some of these activities received competitive funding from Barcelona City Council. We also began construction of the new website, which will improve the visibility of our researchers and of the institution. This new website will be linked to the new website of Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and the Portal Clínic, to reinforce collaboration between the two institutions. We are well prepared to face the challenges that 2019 will bring us. Of particular importance is the continuing implementation of our Strategic Plan in a context of social change and economical