Àngels López

This week IBEC is attending the second edition of “IN(3D)USTRY: From Needs to Solutions”, the international meeting devoted to 3D printing.

The institute has a stand in the exhibition area, where Head of Technology Transfer Xavier Rubies, Technology Transfer manager Xavier Puñet and Nanotechnology Platform Coordinator Mateu Pla are welcoming visitors interested in finding out more about IBEC’s 3D bioprinting capabilities.

Yesterday lunchtime IBEC director Josep Samitier gave a talk about the challenges and possibilities of 3D bioprinting, where he outlined some of IBEC’s relevant projects including the cardiac regeneration research by Nuria Montserrat’s group and the bioreactors being developed by Elena Martinez.

Yesterday and today IBEC has been exhibiting at the Coventry Life Festival in the UK, a celebration of active ageing which is taking place in the university town not far from Birmingham.

Sunday saw more than 1000 middle-aged and elderly residents and their families flock to the city for the Vitality Marketplace, a showcase of resources and information about healthy and active ageing.

Supported by EIT health, IBEC’s stand is demonstrating the 3D bioprinting techniques being optimised in the institute to tackle age-related disease by creating biomaterials to aid the regeneration of organs such as the heart, as well as giving out information about the institute to potential masters and PhD students.

The Spanish Platform for Nanomedicine (NANOMED Spain), the Spanish Platform for Innovation in Healthcare Technology and the HealthTech Cluster came together today for a conference on 3D printing and its applications in the health sector in Barcelona.

Clinical researchers from all over Spain, hospitals, health authorities and representatives of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and health technology companies, among others, met to discuss the use of 3D bioprinting – 3D printing with cells – whose potential in the field of health, and particularly in tissue and organ regeneration, is huge. During the event’s three round table discussions, they talked about the current situation, future prospects and challenges presented by this new technology.

IBEC is to be the official representative of Catalonia in the European Commission’s Smart Specialisation Platform for Industrial Modernisation (S3P-Industry) in the area of Medical Technology.

S3P-Industry, which was launched in 2016, is one of three Smart Specialisation Platforms created by the EC to help regions develop or share infrastructures such as testing facilities, pilot plants or data centres, with the ultimate goal of fostering interregional cooperation in specialist areas and creating an investment pipeline of mature projects.