Sarah Moreira 
More than 700 experts from around the world will attend the 3rd Conference of the European Society for Spatial Biology (ESSB), until 1 October, and co-organised by Dr Anna Pascual-Reguant from CNAG.
The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) has today released the first episode of IBEC On Air, its new science communication podcast and one of the activities marking the institute’s 20th anniversary. Across seven episodes of around 20 minutes each, researchers from the institute talk about their work, the questions that drive it and the journey behind each project. The podcast is available on Spotify, iVoox, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
A new study led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) shows that a single biomaterial can be locally “programmed” to be rigid in some areas and flexible in others, mimicking a strategy long used by insects and other arthropods. As a proof of concept, described in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, the researchers built articulated structures combining rigid segments and flexible joints to enable controlled movement within a single continuous sheet. Inspired by how nature builds complex structures from a single material, the approach could simplify both manufacturing and recycling. Locally tuning one biodegradable material with trace amounts of metals avoids producing different materials for different functions and could allow the whole object to be recycled or composted together, eliminating the sorting and separate recovery that multi-material products require.
The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) has installed a new POLARIS system in Barcelona, one of the first two quantum-enhanced MRI systems deployed under the EU-funded Q-AID project, alongside a twin installation at the University of Antwerp. The system marks IBEC’s entry into a four-year, €8.3 million European initiative to build a shared platform for quantum-enhanced metabolic imaging.
Entrevista a Zaida Álvarez al suplement “Matèria Primera” del diari ARA.
The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) currently has two projects in the ATMP Catalyst acceleration programme, run by Biocat: AdCerebri, from the Molecular Bionics research group led by Giuseppe Battaglia, which joined the programme’s second call this week, and Aegisome Bio, from the Quasi-living Materials group led by César Rodriguez Emmenegger, selected in the first edition and now moving into its second phase. Both projects were presented on Thursday 10 September 2026 at ATMP Day 2026, the event organised by Biocat to showcase the programme’s new cohort.
The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) welcomes Dr Carlos Moreno Yruela as principal investigator. Moreno-Yruela joins from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland) and will lead the new Enzyme Sensors and Chemical Probes group, focused on developing imaging tools and enzyme-activity modulators to uncover disease mechanisms.
Manuel Salmeron, director and ICREA Research Professor at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), received the George Winter Award 2026 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to biomaterials research. The European Society for Biomaterials’ (ESB) most prestigious individual honour was officially presented to Salmeron, he stated on Tuesday, 8 September 2026, during the ESB 2026 conference held in Antwerp, Belgium.
A research consortium led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia in Barcelona has developed a family of light-switchable small molecules designed to occupy the gap. The compounds, called prosthe6, restored visual responses in zebrafish and mouse models of retinal degeneration under ordinary ambient light.
La biotecnológica española Lumiris avanza en su nueva ronda de financiación tras captar ocho millones.