Two members of our research team, Roger Curcoll and Dr. Sílvia Borràs, traveled this June to Japan in order to perform a 10 days air sampling campaign. In collaboration with Dr. Fukiko Ichida and Dr. Keiichi Hirono from Toyama University Hospital, the high-volume air samplers were placed on the rooftop of the hospital. During the […]

The discussion about diseases of unknown etiology, among others Kawasaki disease, arises multiple questions: Can environmental factors, such as air-transported preformed toxins, be of key relevance to the health outcomes of poorly understood human ailments (e.g., rheumatic diseases such as vasculitides, some inflammatory diseases, or even severe childhood acquired heart diseases)? Can the physical, chemical […]

This year the Daniel Bravo Andreu Foundation launched the first call for the Daniel Bravo Projects in paediatric research. The main aim of the call encouraged collaboration between clinical groups (which have direct contact with patients) and basic research groups, focusing on unmet medical needs in children under 16 years old. The call awarded three […]

Our study still remains high in its online altimetric scores many months after its publication. According to the PNAS website, our article lies in the top 5% of all articles ranked by attention. It is reported to make very good compared to articles of the same age (99th percentile). So far Altmetric has tracked 24,829 […]

A new focused aircraft monitoring campaign is scheduled to take place over NW Japan next February, if IC3 scientists manage to gather the amount of funds needed to cover for the costs of the flights. The objective is to further test whether the Candida hypothesis or the environmental toxin agent, both raised in the latest […]

IC3 and the Kawasaki Disease consortium have established a new joint collaboration with scientists at both Toyama and Kanazawa Hospitals to advance research onto causes of Kawasaki disease. Medical doctor experts on cardiomyopathies and Kawasaki disease Dr. Fukiko Ichida from the University of Toyama and Dr. Tsuneyuki Nakamura in Kanazawa Medical School have recently added […]

A long time has passed since the first Kawasaki disease patient was identified in Japan by Dr. Tomisaku Kawasaki and yet no agreement on its cause and potential agent/s has consistently emerged. Different theories suggested different epidemiological pathways, ranging from a typical infectious disease to different kinds of exacerbated host responses in susceptible children being […]

Analysis of wind dynamics and fluctuations of Kawasaki disease numbers in the different cities within the Greater Tokyo, as well as results from computer simulations with a Lagrangian particle dispersion model suggest that there is a short incubation time for Kawasaki disease, typically in the range of 6 hours to 2.5 days. Simulations and analyses […]

Kawasaki disease may be caused by fungal particles or toxins carried on wind currents from dense croplands in northeastern China to Japan, according to our new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Kawasaki disease, the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children worldwide, […]

Scientists of IC3 and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona have recently joined forces in the search of an etiological agent and potential treatment for Kawasaki disease patients. The Hospital’s group led by Dr. Jordi Anton, Senior Attendant of the Pediatric Rheumatology Unit has an special interest in this disease and follows a big […]