Presentation of the collaboration agreement between CREAL and the Arizona Respiratory Centre (University of Arizona) and the new spaces of CREAL

The collaboration agreement between CREAL and the University of Arizona will be presented on the 16th of February at 12:30 h. in the Auditorium PRBB. The act aims to establish a collaboration plan on the research being conducted by the two centres on asthma and COPD after the success of the agreement signed last year between CREAL and INSERM of France.

The University of Arizona, and in particular the Arizona Respiratory Center at this university, is recognised internationally for epidemiological research into asthma, having made notable contributions to the knowledge of the natural history of asthma in childhood (Martínez FD et al., New Eng J Med, 1995), risk factors (Ball TM et al., New Eng J Med, 2002) and treatment (Guilbert TW et al., New Eng J Med, 2005). As a result of these studies, the population model of childhood asthma in Tucson, Arizona has become a worldwide reference. Dr. Fernando Martínez, director of the Arizona Respiratory Center, is an associate editor of Thorax and reviewer for several scientific journals, such as The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine and the American Journal of Human Genetics and Pediatrics, among others.

The incorporation of Dr. Stefano Guerra into CREAL has roused the interest of both centres in establishing a collaboration plan on the research that the two centres are conducting on asthma and COPD. This interest was made clear during the recent visit of Dr. Fernando Martínez, director of the Arizona Respiratory Center, to CREAL (October 2007) in which the idea of establishing a collaboration agreement emerged. One of the immediately important aspects of this agreement is that it reinforces the possibility that Dr. Stefano Guerra will continue to keep part of his current research in Tuscon active, given that it is focused on COPD and is highly complementary to the research being developed at CREAL.

The act on the 16th of February will be the official presentation of the collaboration agreement and different papers on the new frontiers of knowledge of chronic respiratory diseases. Dr. Jordi Sunyer and Manolis Kogevinas, the scientific co-directors of CREAL, Dr. Fernando Martínez, director of the Arizona Respiratory Center, and Dr. Stefano Guerra, researcher at CREAL and the Arizona Respiratory Center, will be in charge of these scientific sessions.

This ceremony will also present the new spaces that CREAL is setting up on the ground floor of the PRBB building which will enable this institution to continue with its process of expansion.