Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases:

The infectious diseases have traditionally been the link between Microbiology and Medicine. The field of Reseach in Microbiolñogy and Inflammation is a multidisciplinary approximation to the study of the relation between bacteria and certain diseases by means of close collaboration between medical specialists and biologists.

There are two fundamental aims in this area of research; firstly, the study of infectious diseases and the application of modern molecular techniques to identify the bacteria responsible. Special attention is paid to nosocomial infection, bacterial resistance to antibiotics, and the effect of the use of antimicrobians in primary care on the communitary microbian ecology of the pathogens. The research is particularly concerned with the use of new molecular markers to estimate the prevalence of the pathogenes present in the respiratory processes: Legionella pneumophila, Streptococcus pneumoniae or Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Secondly, the team studies the part played by the micro-organisms in the inflammatory process. Chronic inflammatory diseases and the auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory diseases of the intestines, diabetes mellitus, or multiple sclerosis cause high morbidity and premature death. Although the pathology of each of these diseases is well-known, the causal factors are still unclear. As a result, the therapies have been based on the consequences of these processes and not the causes. Over the last few decades the infectious processes causing a range of diseases have been identified. For example, it is known that peptic ulcers are the result of a Helicobacter Phylori infection and that some forms of cancer are the result of viral infections (virus T-lymphotropic and herpes virus 8 humans) or bacteria (H Pylori), or that some arthritis are the result of an infection by Borrelia Burgdorferil. Some imflammatory diseases are post-infectious disorders (post-streptococcus syndromes, rheumatic fevers, acute glomerulonephritis or arthritis associated with HLA B27). The study of these relations began in our Institute (thanks to a project financed by the television ‘Marathon’ on Channel TV3) with the aim of analysing the Microbiology of Crohn’s Disease and investigating the possible therapeutic role of prebiotics and probiotics. Also being studied is the microbic ecology of the colon in inflammatory diseases of the intenstines, though from an essentially basic approach.

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