The José Carreras Research Institute against Leukaemia is born, as a result of the collaboration between the Catalan government and the private José Carreras International Foundation.

This morning, the meeting to constitute the new José Carreras Research Institute against Leukaemia took place. The main aims of the new Institute are to promote the biomedical research of hematological malignancies, especially leukaemia, and also to develop preventative and personalized medicines in the same field.

The meeting was attended by Mr. José Carreras in his role as president of the private International Foundation that took his name. In addition, he was joined by ministers, Marina Geli and Josep Huguest, the rector of the UAB, Ana Ripoll, the rector of the UB, Dídac Ramírez and the mayor of Badalona Jordi Sierra.

As he formalized the project in the Palace of the Generalitat, the tenor and promoter of the José Carreras Foundation insisted that this centre is “a new avenue of hope to fight leukemia”. “As a grateful patient I see that an extraordinary door is opening, a dream that would not have been possible 22 years ago“, he explained.

The José Carreras Research Institute against Leukaemia, will be administered by a newly created Foundation of the Catalan Government and the Private José Carreras International Foundation. In addition, the University of Barcelona, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and the local council of Badalona will all have a presence on the board.

The centre is a joint partnership between the government and the José Carreras International Foundation against Leukaemia. The tenor, José Carreras established the Foundation on the 14th of April 1988 to fight against leukaemia.

It is the goal of the government and the José Carreras Foundation to create an Institute that will be a centre of reference on a worldwide scale, in the field of hematological malignancies, especially leukaemia.

The new facility will take another step towards the realization of quality biomedical research, which forms a part of the government’s commitment to healthcare, in addition to the fight against cancer and hematological malignancies, which form one of the largest groups of diseases which cause of mortality.

The new Institute will be situated in two campuses: a brand new building in the campus of the Hospital Universitario Germans Trias I Pujol in Badalona on land that has been donated by the council and the other in the surroundings of the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona. The superb location of the Germans Trias I Pujol campus, next to the Germans Trias I Pujol Institute of Sanitary Research and other research centres such as the IMPPCC (Personalized and Preventative Medicine Institute against Cancer), will facilitate the research and enhance quantity new knowledge we can obtain regarding improvements in clinical practice, and the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hematological malignancies. The other campus is located in the Hospital Clínic, and is part of a project involving the expansion and improvement of the research areas of the haematology Department.