Author's Name: Diana Gasca

The training will combine theoretical content with a highly practical approach, allowing participants to hone their skills in advanced laparoscopic techniques applied to reconstructive urology. Through training on an experimental model and with a small number of participants, the course will promote personalized learning, alternating the roles of lead surgeon and assistant to optimize the acquisition of surgical skills in highly complex procedures. Instructor: Dr. Miguel Efrén Jiménez Romero, AGSCGE, Principal Investigator, INiBICA EM29 Group. 🔗 Course Information 🔗 Registration Form

At the Andalusian Public Foundation for Progress and Health (FPS), we are seeking candidates who wish to join our research groups through the 2022 “ Juan De la Cierva ” and “Ramón y Cajal” grants programs administered by the State Research Agency of the Ministry of Science and Innovation. These grant programs, mentioned above, will open next week. If you have any questions or need further information, please feel free to contact us. E-mail: sistema.desarrollo.profesional.fps@juntadeandalucia.es Phone: +34 955 04 04 59. 🔗 More information: Regional Government of Andalusia

The award-winning studies, led by Juan Jesús Fernández and selected from among nearly 200 submissions, address gestational diabetes, fetal growth, and the sentinel lymph node. The Andalusian Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics (SAGO), at the 23rd edition of its conference, has awarded the University Hospital of Puerto Real three of the six prizes it bestows. The studies, selected from nearly 200 submissions, are led by Juan Jesús Fernández, head of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at the Puertorreal-based hospital and director of the Research, Development, and Innovation Group in Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Gynecologic Oncology at the Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation of the Province of Cádiz (INiBICA). Specifically, this unit received the first prize for Best Oral Presentation for “Predictive Model for the Risk of Gestational Diabetes: A Multicenter Study,” with Cristina Pedreño, María del Rocío Moreno, José Manuel Jiménez, and Juan Jesús Fernández as the Authors . The study is led by this department, but eleven hospitals—including those in Andalusia as well as La Paz Hospital in Madrid—participated. It presents a model that calculates a woman’s risk of developing gestational diabetes during pregnancy. This model distinguishes between early-onset gestational diabetes (diagnosed before 24 weeks of gestation) and late-onset gestational diabetes (which develops after week 24). The second prize for Best Paper Presentation is titled “Customized and Optimized Fetal Growth Percentile Curves”; in this study, the researchers improved the growth curve used by the department to determine whether a fetus is growing appropriately. Weight monitoring is one of the fundamental factors to assess during pregnancy follow-up: growth abnormalities—whether due to insufficient growth (growth restriction) or excessive growth (overgrowth)—constitute a warning sign. Accurate classification of fetuses improves perinatal outcomes. The “ Authors ” are Rocío Fuentes, María Castillo Lara, and Juan Jesús Fernández. For the study’s design, they included data from more than 8,000 women whose pregnancies and deliveries were managed at the University Hospital Puerto Real. First Prize for Best Poster Awarded to a Pioneering Center in Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy The first prize for Best Poster was awarded to Sara Bianca Aragón, Laura de Pablo, Ángel Vilar, and Juan Jesús Fernández for “Predictive Model of Sentinel Lymph Node Positivity in Patients with Breast Cancer,” which allows for the calculation of the probability that a patient undergoing surgery for breast cancer will have positive axillary lymph nodes. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University Hospital “ Puerto Real ” performs more than 200 breast cancer surgeries per year; patients are evaluated by a multidisciplinary “ Team ” comprising radiologists, pathologists, gynecologists, and oncologists. In most cases (about 80%), patients benefit from breast-conserving treatment. This center was a pioneer in the province in implementing the sentinel lymph node detection technique in the early 2000s; as a result, nearly 1,500 women have already benefited from this technique, which in most cases avoids the need for a complete lymphadenectomy (axillary lymph node dissection). The award-winning tool allows for highly accurate prediction of which women will test positive on biopsy; this enables better planning of surgical schedules, since when the probability is very low, the biopsy is performed at a later time (rather than intraoperatively). 🔗 More information: Diario de Cádiz

The results of a study published in the *International Journal of Molecular Sciences* suggest a potential new compound for treating hemophilia A in patients for whom Factor VIII infusions cannot be used. The main complication in hemophilia A therapy is that many patients develop autoantibodies against the injected Factor VIII, which ultimately renders the treatment ineffective. Therefore, it is urgent to study the mechanisms of coagulation that will allow us to find new therapies for these patients. In this regard, researchers from the University of Cádiz (UCA) and Puerta del Mar Hospital (HUPM), affiliated with the Cádiz Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation (INiBICA), in collaboration with researchers from Virgen del Rocío Hospital (HUVR) in Seville, have recently reported that certain phosphate polymers (polyphosphates) could form the basis for the design of new therapies to treat hemophilia A. In previous studies, the researchers had found that a blood factor known as von Willebrand factor (vWF) can be modulated by phosphate polymers (polyphosphates) that occur naturally in the body. In this study, it was determined that the modulation of FvW by polyphosphates occurs only in the absence of another blood factor, known as Factor VIII. Factor VIII is precisely the factor that is lacking in patients with hemophilia A. The Authors conducted experiments using plasma from healthy individuals, from patients with hemophilia A of varying severity, and from patients with different types of von Willebrand disease. They also studied molecular interactions in vitro, where they found that polyphosphate and FVIII compete to bind to FvW. These findings were published this week in the *International Journal of Molecular Sciences*. Based on the results obtained, the Authors suggest that polyphosphate—which is a natural coagulant—could be used in the design of new therapies to treat hemophilia A as a substitute for FVIII when the latter cannot be used, such as in patients who have developed autoantibodies. This work was carried out by the “Phosphate Metabolism” research group at UCA/HUPM/INiBICA, in close collaboration with faculty members from the Department of Biomedicine, Biotechnology, and Public Health (UCA) and the Department of Hematology at HUVR. The researchers involved were Marcela Montilla (HUPM, now a professor at the Cooperativa University of Colombia), Isabel Atienza-Navarro (HUPM/UCA), Francisco José García-Cozar (UCA), Carmen Castro (UCA), and Francisco Javier Rodríguez-Martorell (HUVR), led by Professor Félix A. Ruiz (Nutrition Division, UCA). Bibliographic Reference: Montilla, M.; Atienza-Navarro, I.; García-Cozar, F.J.; Castro, C.; Rodríguez-Martorell, F.J.; Ruiz, F.A. Polyphosphate Activates von Willebrand Factor Interaction with Glycoprotein Ib in the Absence of Factor VIII In Vitro. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23, 14118. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232214118. 🔗 More information: Polyphosphate Activates von Willebrand Factor Interaction with Glycoprotein Ib in the Absence of Factor VIII In Vitro

The results of a study published in the journal *Nutrients* suggest a possible link between the levels of certain phosphate polymers in the blood and the risk of metabolic diseases such as insulin resistance and diabetes. Obesity has historically been associated with an increased risk of developing metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus and insulin resistance. However, many obese individuals do not develop these metabolic disorders or exhibit only a few of them, making them less prone to complications. It is therefore of great interest to identify the factors that change when metabolic disease begins, in order to better diagnose and treat it. In this regard, researchers from the University of Cádiz (UCA) and Puerta del Mar Hospital (HUPM), affiliated with the Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation at Cádiz (INiBICA), have recently reported that phosphate polymers (polyphosphates) accumulate in the blood of obese children with insulin resistance and in adult patients with type 2 diabetes. These findings were published this week in the journal *Nutrients*. Polyphosphates are natural polymers found in many tissues, but their levels in the blood were previously unknown. This research group developed a method to measure them accurately a few years ago. Using this technology, the researchers have provided the first evidence of elevated polyphosphate levels in the blood associated with insulin resistance and diabetes. In a previous study, this same research group had observed that these phosphate polymers decrease in healthy individuals, even if they are obese. Since it is now known that they increase only in the presence of metabolic diseases, the results suggest that polyphosphates could serve as biomarkers for the onset of these diseases. This study was conducted by the “Phosphate Metabolism” research group at UCA/INiBICA in close collaboration with the Departments of “Pediatric Endocrinology” and “Endocrinology and Nutrition” at the HUPM. The researchers involved were Marcela Montilla (HUPM, now a professor at the U. Cooperativa de Colombia), Andrea Liberato (UCA), Pablo Ruiz-Ocaña (HUPM), Ana Sáez-Benito (HUPM), Manuel Aguilar (HUPM/UCA), and Alfonso Lechuga (HUPM/UCA), led by Professor Félix A. Ruiz (Department of Nutrition, UCA). Bibliographic Reference: Montilla, M.; Liberato, A.; Ruiz-Ocaña, P.; Sáez-Benito, A.; Aguilar-Diosdado, M.; Lechuga-Sancho, A.M.; Ruiz, F.A. (2022) Proinflammatory Polyphosphate Increases in Plasma of Obese Children with Insulin Resistance and Adults with Severe Type 2 Diabetes. Nutrients, 14, 4601. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14214601. 🔗 More information: Proinflammatory Polyphosphate Increases in Plasma of Obese Children with Insulin Resistance and Adults with Severe Type 2 Diabetes

The Andalusia–Roche Alliance for Precision Medicine in Neurology is a public-private initiative whose scientific work will be led by Pedro Serrano, chief of the Neurology Unit at the Málaga Regional Hospital, with the support of co-principal investigators María Dolores Jiménez, chief of the Neurology Unit at the Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Seville; and Miguel Moya, head of the Neurology Unit at the Puerta del Mar Hospital in Cádiz. The latter is a member of the CO4 research group. Projects , and initiatives carried out within the framework of this alliance will be coordinated through NeuroReca, the Andalusian Network for Clinical and Translational Research in Neurology, thereby optimizing the synergies that already exist within the Andalusian Public Health System. It is worth noting that the CO12 research group is participating in one of these Projects, recently funded through the 2022 Call for Grants to Fund Research, Development, and Innovation (R&D&I) in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in Andalusia, under the “ Projects ” category for public-private partnership research and innovation in 2022. 🔗 More information: Andalusian Regional Government

The regional delegate for Health and Consumer Affairs, Eva Pajares, visited today the information booth set up by the Spanish Association Against Cancer at the “ Cádiz ” as part of World Cancer Research Day. She joined the association’s provincial managing director, María Jiménez, and other officials in marking the occasion. Pajares highlighted the “commitment” of the Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation of the Province of Cádiz (INiBICA), as it currently has several research lines aimed at developing advances in the fight against this disease. INiBICA has a specific program in Onco-Hematology that leverages the synergy between university and clinical research staff. This program has launched new biomedical Lines of research on cancer, with two Projects recently receiving national and regional funding. The first consists of a non-pharmacological clinical trial involving an emotional intervention to increase work capacity and return-to-work rates among breast cancer survivors by alleviating anxiety, depression, and cognitive decline. This project is led by José Manuel Baena, a physician at the Puerta del Mar University Hospital and a member of INiBICA, and by Rocío Guil of the University of Cádiz (UCA). The second project aims to improve the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer through a validation trial of diagnostic algorithms using biomarkers in blood and urine, led by professionals from the University Hospital of Puerto Real and leaders of the INiBICA group: Diego Santotoribio and Juan Jesús Fernández. Within the Epidemiology and Public Health program, a highlight is the recent participation of researchers from the MOVE-IT group at INiBICA and the UCA, led by David Jiménez, in the European OACCUs project (an acronym for “Get Outdoors Against Cancer”), which aims to promote a healthy lifestyle among young cancer patients (ages 15 to 39) through outdoor physical activity, psychoeducation, a healthy diet, and healthy environments. Finally, the Emerging and Innovative Therapies program features innovative research lines such as that of the group led by Carmen Castro, a researcher at the institute and the UCA, which is focused on the search for new drugs to treat highly aggressive brain tumors such as human glioblastoma, for which there is currently no successful treatment to halt the growth of this type of tumor. The Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation of Cádiz(INiBICA) is a joint institute of the Andalusian Health Service and the University of Cádiz that is committed to promoting healthcare research and innovation in the province to address societal needs, such as improving the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. 🔗 More information: Europa Press