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Àngels López

“Peru-sing” collaboration opportunities in South America

josepperuIBEC Director Josep Samitier was visiting Peru last week as part of a delegation of representatives from Severo Ochoa and Maria de Maeztu research centres in Spain.

The visit to Lima, organised by MINECO, which bestows the two types of Excellence awards, aimed to bring together the top Spanish institutions with those of the Pacific Alliance – Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

Each of the eight Spanish centres presented their research and international strategies, and they had the chance to hear about the same from Pacific Alliance centers, as well as identifying potential synergies.

“La revolución de los organoides”

2016 06 01 MuyInteresanteMuy Interesante magazine this week features an article about organoids, three-dimensional cell/ tissue cultures which mimic organ structure and function, and quotes Nuria Montserrat as an expert opinion.

Head of Tech Transfer Office

supportApplication Deadline:
30/05/2016
Ref:TTO-DB
The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) is looking for a Head of Tech Transfer Office whose mission will be to facilitate the transfer of inventions from IBEC’s Research Groups to the market for the benefit of society on a local, national and global basis, being aligned with and boosting the IBEC’s Research Programme 2015-2018. The successful candidate will run a team of two people and the Unit will report to IBEC’s Managing Director.

Two bacteria papers in the news

bacteriaThe two recent papers from Eduard Torrents and Antonio Juárez on how bacteria can cause chronic infections and new bacterial virulence markers in E. coli respectively got some press coverage this week.

Researchers generate human heart grafts from human pluripotent stem cells

Foto2Scientists from IBEC, in collaboration with the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón in Spain and two other groups in the USA, have made a big leap in heart regeneration advances by achieving heart grafts from human pluripotent stem cells for the first time in less than one month.

The collaborators, working in Spain and the USA, describe in the journal Biomaterials how they decellularized human hearts, all of which had been determined not suitable for transplantation by the Spanish National Transplant Organization. They left the extracellular matrix, the structure that provides cells with structural and biochemical support, intact.

HR Technician

supportApplication Deadline: 29/05/2016
Ref: HR-CM

The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) is looking for an experienced HR Technician to join our HR team . The successful candidate will report to the Head of Human Resources.

It’s Pere’s round at Pint of Science

pintofscienceJunior group leader Pere-Roca Cusachs is set to take part in the second Pint of Science event next week, a science festival that will take place simultaneously in a dozen countries all over the world. In its own words, Pint of Science aims to “bring some of the most brilliant scientists to your local pub to discuss their latest research and findings with you”.

At 20:00 on Monday 23rd May Pere will giving his talk, “Mecanobiologia: quan amb química no n’hi ha prou”, at Bacanal Café on c/Sepúlveda 164, as patrons enjoy a pint – or, more likely, a caña. He will share the evening with Salvador Aznar Benitah (ICREA -IRB), who will be talking about “Células madre, relojes biológicos y envejecimiento”. Other scientists taking part in the three-day event this year – which will take place at several venues including the Michael Collins pub, Mau Mau and the BlackLab Brewhouse – include researchers from ICFO, ISGlobal, the UB and the UPC.

Looking to the ocean for malaria solutions

Microciona_forwebResearchers have found heparin-like molecules with reduced blood-thinning activity that can be used for therapeutic approaches against malaria – in sea cucumbers, red algae and marine sponges.

Until now, heparin – which has been shown to have antimalarial activity and specific binding affinity for red blood cells infected with the Plasmodium malaria parasite – has not been explored for anti-malarial drug solutions due to its powerful anticoagulating activity. While heparin is able to block the cell adhesion of infected red blood cells to various host receptors and disrupt the growth of the pathogen, its downfall is that the quantities needed for malaria treatment would result in too much blood-thinning and bleeding. There’s also the potential risk of infection, since polysaccharides such as heparin tend to be obtained from mammals.

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