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16/06/2026 - General information

Bringing La Marató-Funded Research Closer to Citizens Through Four Successful Visits

Hospital del Mar Research Institute (HMRIB) once again took part in the "Visita la recerca de La Marató" initiative, promoted by the Fundació La Marató of 3Cat, opening its doors to the public to showcase the biomedical research made possible through the solidarity of thousands of donors.

Four guided visits were organised during May and June-three in the morning and one in the afternoon-and were met with an excellent response from participants. The sessions provided an opportunity to learn about three projects funded by the 2021 La Marató on Mental Health and the 2022 La Marató on Cardiovascular Health, focusing on two major health challenges: suicide prevention and stroke.

On 21 and 22 May, Philippe Mortier and Montse López, from the Health Services Research Group, together with Manuel Pastor, from the Pharmacoinformatics Research Group, presented a project aimed at improving the identification of individuals at risk of suicide. Through a workshop based on cases inspired by real-life situations, participants learned how artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques can help identify risk and protective factors, contributing to more accurate clinical assessment.

Later, on 9 and 10 June, Joan Jiménez Balado, Jordi Jiménez Conde, Marta Vallverdú, Marc Arreaza and Anna Rodríguez, from the Neurovascular Research Group, presented two stroke-focused projects. The first, Stopped-Stroke, investigates epigenetic variations associated with stroke risk. The second, Mariona, is an artificial intelligence-based application currently under development that aims to provide healthcare professionals with valuable information to support rapid and appropriate decision-making in cases of acute stroke.

Participants discovered how factors related to lifestyle and daily habits, beyond genetics alone, can influence the development of this disease, and how research is helping to identify new mechanisms and potential future therapeutic targets. They also had the opportunity to tour the institute's facilities, visit the Biobank-home to more than 24,000 samples from stroke patients-see the research group's laboratory, and visit Hospital del Mar's emergency code activation area to gain first-hand insight into how stroke code procedures are activated and managed.

Hospital del Mar Research Institute was one of 14 research centres participating in this initiative, launched in 2015 with the aim of bringing research closer to society and providing transparency and social accountability regarding the funds raised through La Marató.

The high level of participation and the strong interest shown by visitors highlight the importance of these activities in bringing science closer to citizens and demonstrating the impact that La Marató's contributions have on advancing biomedical research.

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