First stone laid for the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute
It will be the first Spanish research center and one of the only in the world dedicated exclusively to research on leukemia and hematological malignancies.
By Biocat
The Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute will build a new building on the ICO-Germans Trias i Pujol campus, linked to the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Badalona (Barcelona), who has ceded a lot of land of 4,550 square meters, next to the Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol and the Institute of Predictive and Personalized Medicine of Cancer (IMPPC). The other Institute building is at the campus of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona and the University of Barcelona Faculty of Medicine.
Last 7 July, the first stone of the new research center was laid during an event attended by the President of the Generalitat, Artur Mas, the Catalan Minister of Health, Boi Ruiz, the mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, the founder and president of the Institute, Josep Carreras, and Professor Evarist Feliu, president of the Executive Committee of the Research Institute against Leukaemia and vice president of the Josep Carreras Foundation against Leukemia.
President Mas said that "with this new facility gave a very positive message of hope to leukemia patients." He also used his speech to thank Josep Carreras “spirit of generosity and service to his country.” And, he highlighted the spirit of solidarity shown by the Catalan people, " whereas Catalonia is high in the ranking for organ donation. "
The Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute was founded in 2010, a joint initiative between the Government of Catalonia and the Josep Carreras Foundation, to promote biomedical research and development of personalized medicine for hematological malignancies, and especially leukemia.
"Both campuses give us an excellent combination of health care and research environments. Our project aims to add to, integrate with, share and promote the already excellent level of research even more. We are already doing this at a management level by simplifying structures and we will also do it in the scientific area by integrating services and sharing facilities avoiding unnecessary duplications," said Josep Carreras.
During 2012 we will work to create the third campus in the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona.
In the next few years the Josep Carreras International Leukemia Foundation will invest €14M in the buildings and equipment of the two campuses: Hospital Clinic campus and ICO-Germans Trias i Pujol. It also receives funding from the Obra Social "la Caixa", from the Catalan Government —which will allocate an annual budget to fund running costs of the Institute—, while other funding will come from competitive grants and private donation.