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21/05/2026 - Institutional news

Three grants from the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery for the Hospital del Mar Pneumology Department

The grants will support three research projects in the field of sarcopenia in people with chronic respiratory diseases, the application of phage therapy in lung disease caused by non-tuberculous mycobacteria, and lung cancer screening. The grants will be presented on 6 June during SEPAR's 59th congress.

The scientific committee for the SEPAR 2026 grants call has awarded three grants to projects led by professionals from the Hospital del Mar Pneumology Department and researchers from the Hospital del Mar Research Institute (HMRIB). Overall, this grant call from the Sociedad Española de Neurmología y Cirugía Torácica has distributed more than 600,000 euros to promote research.

Studying the mechanisms of sarcopenia

Dr Esther Barreiro, consultant physician in the Pneumology Department and coordinator of the Research Group on Muscle Wasting and Cachexia in Chronic Respiratory Diseases and Lung Cancer at HMRIB, has received a grant of 13,000 euros and support for work intensification. In this way, the funding promotes a project that, for the first time, aims to identify the molecular mechanisms involved in sarcopenia - the loss of muscle mass and strength - in patients with chronic respiratory diseases, such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and bronchiectasis. It will do so by analysing the epigenome and gene expression in isolated muscle myonuclei from people with COPD, bronchiectasis and healthy subjects.

D'esquerra a dreta: Marisol Domínguez, Esther Barreiro, Roberto Chalela i Marina Sainz.

Treatment with bacteriophages

The second selected project, led by Dr Marisol Domínguez, consultant physician in the Pneumology Department, will promote a clinical trial to analyse the feasibility of using nebulised phages or bacteriophages - viruses that can selectively infect and destroy bacteria - to treat lung disease caused by non-tuberculous mycobacteria. This is a type of disease that is difficult to treat with combinations of antibiotics and faces the challenge of antibiotic resistance in these organisms. This approach may open up new therapeutic avenues. The study has received a grant of 12,000 euros.

Advancing lung cancer screening

SEPAR has selected a third proposal from Hospital del Mar, which has received a grant of 9,000 euros, to promote a pioneering lung cancer screening project based on personalised medicine and multi-omics sciences. Led by Dr Roberto Chalela, a physician in the Pneumology Department and researcher at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute, the project will combine screening findings with multi-omics biomarkers to identify biological signatures that can improve early detection of lung cancer and optimise the selection of people at high risk of developing it.

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