When he heard that there had been a A car accident with numerous fatalities and injuries in BarcelonaLaura Morro was eating, at home after a full day's work at the hospital. "It was the very day I had returned from vacation. A colleague who was at the Fnac in Plaza Catalunya at the time called me and told me that something big was happening because they weren't allowed to go outside," she recalls. She's neither a doctor nor a nurse: she's a healthcare social worker at Hospital del Mar. "I immediately thought they would take most of the patients to our hospital," she says. She left home without a second thought and went to her workplace, as did many other healthcare professionals that day. "I remember there was no one on the streets; everyone had locked themselves in at home, and when I got to the Emergency Room, I said, 'What can I do?' And they replied, 'Do what you know,'" she explains.

Pancreatic cancer survival rates five years after detection are among the lowest, at just 10%. Its aggressiveness is due, in part, to late diagnosis, but also to the dome of proteins and cells that protects the tumor, the so-called stroma. Now, a study led by Catalan research centers has identified a new key role played by the Galectin-1 protein in the nucleus of cells surrounding the tumor, hiding it from the action of the immune system and increasing its resistance to drugs, since the medications are unable to cross the barrier.

People with Down syndrome are more likely to consume sugars and fats uncontrollably and suffer from obesity and metabolic diseases such as diabetes due to a genetic alteration. And all of this can harm them cognitively, according to a pioneering European study led by the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona. "It's not just a question of weight or aesthetics; in Down syndrome, obesity is a risk factor for cognitive impairment and certainly for neurodegeneration," said Dr. Mara Dierssen, leader of the cellular and systems neurobiology group of the systems biology program at the CRG and president of the Consell (Spanish Consell).

On Wednesdays, pregnant workers at the Hospital del Mar centres have an appointment with Dr Natàlia Arisa, from the Occupational Health service, who specialises in prenatal music therapy and music. They do so within the framework of the third edition of the prenatal music therapy course that the hospital service itself has been offering them for almost a year, a project of Arisa's own, which she has developed during her residency. As Dr Joana Guerrero, head of the section of the Occupational Health service at the hospital, points out, it is "a pioneering project that, despite being so necessary in a sector such as healthcare, which is so feminised, has not yet been implemented in any other hospital". Guerrero emphasises, however, that these sessions promote "moments of presence and connection, and materialise the maxim of caring for those who care, the ultimate objective of the programme".

He arrives with his mother and grandmother, his eyes wide open and expressive, nibbling on a piece of bread. As we move through the building to go up to the second floor of the BBRC Alzheimer's Research Centre, of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, he looks around him in a serious manner. He can hardly understand Nilo, a beautiful 15-month-old boy, who today will be the protagonist of an experiment that aims to change what science knows about women's mental health during a crucial and vulnerable stage of their lives, pregnancy and postpartum.