“El cerebro que vuelve”
Àngels López
How cells cope with stress and strain
A study by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) reveals how cells withstand breakage during the constant changes in shape and volume experienced in most biological processes
During critical biological processes such as embryonic development, breathing, the pumping of the heart, wound healing and tumor growth, the body’s cells are stretched and distorted to adapt to their environment. The cell’s membrane, though, is rigid and inflexible. So how does it withstand all these constant deformations, so that it doesn’t break?
“La vida: un nou estat de la matèria?”
An opinion piece by Xavier Trepat appears in the current edition of El Punt Avui.
New malaria strategy proposes using unaffected red blood cells as drug carriers
IBEC and ISGlobal’s joint unit, Nanomalaria, has published a new therapeutic strategy against malaria.
The study, which appeared in the current edition of the Journal of Controlled Release, tackles a major hurdle in malaria treatments, which is that most antimalarial drugs start working on the infected cell quite late in Plasmodium’s life cycle, when their effect is often too short to be lethal to the parasite. The work has been done in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline, as one of the few cases of partnerships involving industry in the research and development of innovative antimalarial nanomedicines.
IBEC group leader in new CIBER-BBN steering committee
Biomedical Signal Processing and Interpretation group leader and UPC professor Raimon Jané has been appointed as a member of the new CIBER-BBN Steering Committee.
CIBER-BBN’s Permanent Commission announced the names of the 10-strong committee, which will stand for the next four years, on Wednesday.
Raimon, who will take part in the committee as Training Coordinator, will carry out his duties alongside other researchers including Ramón Martínez-Máñez (Universitat Politècnica de València) as director and José Becerra (Universidad de Málaga) as subdirector.
“La investigación tiene futuro”
In El Periodico today, there’s a four-page article about Catalonia’s ‘champion scientists’.
IBEC is the only institute with not one but two investigators presented, Xavier Trepat and Nuria Montserrat. They’re described as some of the handful of talent under 40 working to improve the health and welfare of society.
“Xavier Trepat, premiado por aplicar la física a las ciencias de la vida”
IBEC group leader and ICREA research professor Xavier Trepat’s winning of this year’s Banc Sabadell Award for Biomedical Research was all over the newspapers last month, with articles appearing in La Vanguardia, El Mundo and El Periodico, among others.
Xavier Trepat winner of the 10th Banc Sabadell Award for Biomedical Research
IBEC group leader and ICREA research professor Xavier Trepat is this year’s winner of the Banc Sabadell Award for Biomedical Research for his work on understanding the fundamental biophysical mechanisms underlying cell interaction and communication.
The news was made public today at a press lunch (left) attended by the President and Vice President of the Fundació Banc Sabadell, Miquel Molins and Sònia Mulero, as well as jury members Jordi Camí (UPF), Isabel Illa (UAB) and Eduard Batlle (ICREA/IRB).
Israel’s former Chief Scientist among visitors for TAU/IBEC symposium
Next week, top scientists from Tel Aviv University (TAU), including Israel’s former Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Science and Technology, are visiting Barcelona to take part in a joint symposium with IBEC.
With many similarities between Catalonia and Israel – which are almost neck-and-neck when it comes to research output in Science and Nature, with over 30 publications per million inhabitants and similar levels of funding under FP7 – this event builds on the fact-finding mission of Artur Mas and Barcelona-based scientists to Israel last year and is supported by AGAUR.
IBEC hosts CellMech2015 this week
The 6th European CellMech Meeting, which is being hosted by IBEC, started this morning at the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Medicine.
IBEC group leaders Daniel Navajas, Xavier Trepat and Pere Roca-Cusachs are the organising committee of this year’s CellMech, one of the premier worldwide meetings in cell mechanobiology. The conference, which goes on until Friday, focuses in particular on the integration of mechanical processes across scales, from subcellular components to tissues.