Run for the hills!
On Sunday the two representatives of the IBEC running team to take part in the Barcelona Marathon, Gabriel Gomila and Miguel Angel Mateos, completed the race within half a minute of each other.
Àngels López
We’re made of glass, say scientists
People can be brittle, transparent, shattered, or have a heart of glass. Now these attributes seem all the more appropriate following a discovery by researchers that migrating cells in our bodies behave in a remarkably similar way to glass when it is heated and cooled.
In a study published in PNAS, researcher Xavier Trepat from Barcelona’s Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia and his collaborators have been looking at collective cell migration, which occurs in our tissue for good or bad: during embryonic development or wound healing, for example, but on the other hand in cancer invasion.
Electromechanics at the nanoscale
Flick a switch, turn a knob or pull a lever and you’re operating an electromechanical device, albeit a complex one. Now an IBEC researcher and his collaborators have broken new ground with a proven concept for the first such electronic component to operate using just a single-molecule electrical contact.
In a study published in Nature Nanotechnology, Ismael Díez Pérez, a researcher in IBEC’s Nanoprobes and Nanoswitches group, and Prof. Nongjian Tao from Arizona State University describe their success in attempting to find a way to simulate the same electromechanical effects achieved on conventional electronics but in a single-molecule device that allows the accurate mechanical control of the current flow.
4th Annual Conference of the Biomedical Research Technology Platforms
This week more than 200 researchers from across the country are in Madrid for the 4th Annual Conference of the Biomedical Research Technology Platforms, which includes the IBEC-managed Spanish Platform for Nanomedicine (NanoMed Spain).
“Protecting nanotechnology research results”
IBEC’s recently completed FP7 project on technology transfer, Nano2Market, was featured in the recent Commission’s Research*EU magazine supplement (Vol. 30, December 2010/January 2011).
Escolab 2011
Yesterday 23 students from the Escola Técnica Profesional del Clot enjoyed a visit to IBEC and took part in some lab activities as part of the ESCOLAB initiative.
Funding from RecerCaixa for photopharmacology project
ICREA group leader Pau Gorostiza’s project ‘Development of light-modulated ligands for remote, non-invasive regulation of neuropathic pain’ was announced today as one of the first twenty projects to be chosen for funding by a brand new programme, RecerCaixa.
Think Lab
In the first event of what’s hoped to become an ongoing collaboration, IBEC is joining forces with Barcelona’s Arts Santa Monica centre and the British Council this weekend for a special activity looking at the scientific laboratory from a cultural point of view.
El 9 Nou: “Cal connectar les mans robotiques amb el nervi perquè rebin ordres”
Robotics group leader Alícia Casals appeared last week in Catalan local paper El 9 Nou, which covers the Osona/Ripollès and Vallès Oriental areas. Alícia gave a lecture about this century’s challenges in robotics at the 3rd Workshop on Mechatronics at the University of Vic on 16 February.
RecerCaixa video about photopharmacology project
Pau Gorostiza features in a short video produced by funders RecerCaixa about the project ‘Development of light-modulated ligands for remote, non-invasive regulation of neuropathic pain’, of which he is the coordinator.