Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia

From the Science of Memory to the Future of Neuroengineering
2017-09-04 17:00 - 20:00 (Europe/Madrid) | Palau Macaya, Passeig de Sant Joan, 108, 08037 Barcelona
From the Science of Memory to the Future of Neuroengineering
with
Nobel Laureate Edvard Moser, Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience
Paul F.M.J. Verschure, ICREA, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC)
IBEC’s research experts in different technologies – nanotechnology, biotechnology, cell engineering, information technology and cognitive science – have been working hard for a decade to generate new knowledge and solutions for health, with three major pillars of application in mind: Bioengineering for Future Medicine, Bioengineering for Regenerative Therapies and Bioengineering for Active Ageing. The latter is where IBEC’s advances in minimally invasive sensors, signal treatment, data analysis or robotics are helping develop technologies to cope with the challenges of an ageing population.
To strengthen IBEC’s Bioengineering for Active Ageing programme, and in particular its neuroengineering area, the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) gained a world-renowned neuroscientist and psychologist with the recruitment in July 2017 of ICREA professor and ERC grantee Paul Verschure and his Synthetic Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems group (SPECS).
To celebrate and introduce this new research group, IBEC is looking forward to welcoming Nobel Laureate Edvard Moser, Founding Director of Trondheim’s Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Co-Director of the Centre for Neural Computation, to Barcelona in September.
At a special event held at Palau Macaya and supported by Obra Social “La Caixa”, which actively collaborates with IBEC in its Active Ageing programme, Prof. Moser will talk about his pioneering work into the basic neural computations that underlie cognition and behavior – research that has completely overturned prior conventional thinking in the field. In 2014 he and May-Britt Moser won, together with John O’Keefe, the Nobel Prize in Physiology for their discovery of ‘grid cells’ in the medial entorhinal cortex, a little-understood region next to the hippocampus. These place-modulated neurons are what the brain uses to calculate the position of the organism in its spatial environment, as their firing fields define a triangular array across the entire environment that provides the brain with an internal coordination system – not unlike GPS – that is essential for navigation.
This findings may have enourmous implications in brain disorders that affect episodic memory, including dementia and disease, as they pave the way to a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying spatial memory, which has been shown to deteriorate in mouse models of Alzheimer’s.
In addition to Prof. Moser’s talk, Prof. Verschure will give an overview of how his SPECS group will fit into the research strategy of IBEC. The arrival of SPECS at the institute represents a boost to the neuroengineering research being carried out at the institute and its Bioengineering for Active Ageing programme, and represents a solid drive towards making life science quantitative on any scale by taking full advantage of the unprecedented power of the convergence between nano, bio and ICT (information and communications technology).
Like IBEC, SPECS includes physicists, psychologists, biologists, engineers and computer scientists, and will contribute greatly to IBEC’s clinical translation efforts with its strong collaborations with hospitals on rehabilitation and recovery after stroke, epilepsy and other brain diseases. In addition, it will further strengthen the insitute’s bioinformatics and neuroinformatics capabilities.

Cross-cultural Communication Skills for Successful Collaboration
2017-09-20 09:00 - 16:00
Training activity in Leadership&management skills.
The course aim is to help participants understand their own communication style, how it impacts on others and how culture can influence communicative effectiveness. Using these insights, participants will practice techniques for managing cross-cultural communication challenges in the workplace.
Dates:
20th September. In person class sessions: 8 hours. 2 sessions of 4 hours each. Maximum 15 participants.
Target Group:

All IBEC members
Provider: Alicia Marín.

Visit of a ERC Scientific Officer to IBEC
2017-09-20 14:30 - 15:30 | IBEC, floor 11, Tower I, Baldiri Reixac 4-8, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
András Badacsonyi
European Research Council Scientific Officer
András will give a presentation about the ERC, after which he will be available for individual meetings with ERC grantees.

Jornada sobre bioimpresión 3D
2017-09-21 10:00 - 14:30 | Sala Dolors Aleu, Cluster II, Parc Científic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Aplicaciones prácticas en salud
Nanomed Spain, la Plataforma Española de Innovación en Tecnología Sanitaria y el HealthTech Cluster
En los últimos años hemos asistido al nacimiento de una gran expectativa entono a la
fabricación aditiva, madre de la impresión 3D, a la que muchos expertos consideran una
de las patas sobre la que se sustenta la denominada “tercera revolución industrial”.
Esta tecnología no es una moda pasajera. Lo vemos en el hecho de que los países más
avanzados del mundo están invirtiendo en Centros de Innovación en Impresión3D
para el desarrollo de sus Industrias de Fabricación, que les permita conseguir innovaciones radicales que les den el liderazgo mundial en muchos sectores.
La Plataforma Española de Nanomedicina, la Plataforma Española de Innovación en Tecnología Sanitaria y el HealthTech Cluster organizan esta jornada para presentar y
debatir sobre las aplicaciones de esta tecnología en el ámbito de la salud.
http://www.plataformatecnologiasanitaria.es/forosempresariales/ver/evento/218
Información de la Jornada:
Jueves 21 de Septiembre de 2017
Sala Dolors Aleu
Parc Científic de Barcelona
C. Baldiri Reixac, 4-8
08028,
Barcelona

Jornada sobre bioimpresión 3D
2017-09-21 10:00 - 14:30 | Sala Dolors Aleu, Cluster II, Parc Científic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Aplicaciones prácticas en salud
Nanomed Spain, la Plataforma Española de Innovación en Tecnología Sanitaria y el HealthTech Cluster
En los últimos años hemos asistido al nacimiento de una gran expectativa entono a la fabricación aditiva, madre de la impresión 3D, a la que muchos expertos consideran una de las patas sobre la que se sustenta la denominada “tercera revolución industrial”. Esta tecnología no es una moda pasajera. Lo vemos en el hecho de que los países más avanzados del mundo están invirtiendo en Centros de Innovación en Impresión3D para el desarrollo de sus Industrias de Fabricación, que les permita conseguir innovaciones radicales que les den el liderazgo mundial en muchos sectores.
La Plataforma Española de Nanomedicina, la Plataforma Española de Innovación en Tecnología Sanitaria y el HealthTech Cluster organizan esta jornada para presentar y debatir sobre las aplicaciones de esta tecnología en el ámbito de la salud.
http://www.plataformatecnologiasanitaria.es/forosempresariales/ver/evento/218

IBEC PhD Thesis Defense: Montse López
2017-09-26 11:00 - 13:00 | Sala de Graus Eduard Fontseré, Martí i Franquès, 1-11, Barcelona, 08028
“Electrochemical tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy of electron transfer proteins”
Montse López, Nanoprobes and Nanoswitches group, IBEC
Montse will be defending her PhD thesis on Tuesday September 26 at 11h in the Sala de Graus Eduard Fontseré, Faculty of Physics.
Everybody is welcome to attend.
—
If you’re an IBEC PhD student and would like to advertise your PhD defense on the IBEC calendar, please contact vleigh@ibecbarcelona.eu

Good practices workshops "How to design experiments"
2017-09-27 10:00 - 13:00
Training activity in Scientific tools & techniques.
The objective of the course is to learn how to apply the scientific method and design better experiments to be able to do proper science.
Dates:
27th September. In person class session: 2-3 hours (to determine)
Target group:
1st year PhD and master’s students.
Provider: Internal Trainer.

IBEC Seminar: Marc Silvain, RegenHu
2017-09-28 14:30 - 15:30 | IBEC, floor 11, Tower I, Baldiri Reixac 4-8, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Bioprinting Software For The RegenHU 3DBioprinting System
Marc Silvain, RegenHu
Bioprinting is a dynamic and exciting stage of evolution where, recently, considerable progress has been accomplished globally in the field of tissue engineering and bioprinting. These developments have in turn led to ground-breaking advancements in Bioprinting leading from fundamental research to Applied research and Clinical testing. Key components in the successful transition of this evolution are the software tools specifically designed to enable interaction between the hardware, the biology and the users.
During this seminar Marc Silvain from RegenHu will describe the capabilities of our 3D Bioprinter (3D Discovery) and will perform a presentation of the software package associated that allows to design complex structures, scaffolds and transform DICOM images to 3Dbioprinted constructs

IBEC Seminar: Silvain Muller, RegenHu
2017-09-28 14:30 - 15:30 | IBEC, floor 11, Tower I, Baldiri Reixac 4-8, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Bioprinting Software for the RegenHU 3DBioprinting System
Silvain Muller, RegenHu
Bioprinting is a dynamic and exciting stage of evolution where, recently, considerable progress has been accomplished globally in the field of tissue engineering and bioprinting. These developments have in turn led to ground-breaking advancements in Bioprinting leading from fundamental research to Applied research and Clinical testing. Key components in the successful transition of this evolution are the software tools specifically designed to enable interaction between the hardware, the biology and the users.
During this seminar Silvain Muller from RegenHu will describe the capabilities of our 3D Bioprinter (3D Discovery) and will perform a presentation of the software package associated that that enables the design of complex structures and scaffolds and the transformation of DICOM images to 3D-bioprinted constructs.

Data Visualization
2017-10-04
Training activity in Scientific tools & techniques.
The workshop aim to provide participants with an accessible and comprehensive introduction to data visualisation – the visual analysis and communication of data.
Dates:
4th October, from 10 to 6pm
Target group:
PhD students and post-docs
Provider: Andy Kirk.

IBEC Seminar: Fabio Variola
2017-10-06 10:00 - 11:00 | IBEC, floor 11, Tower I, Baldiri Reixac 4-8, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
At the intersection of biomaterials, surface science and medicine
Fabio Variola, Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa
In the quest for the next generation of functional biomaterials and new solutions in health-related research, investigators have sought inspiration from nature by developing better performing bio-derived materials (e.g. collagen, chitosan), reproducing naturally occurring micro and nanostructures (e.g. nanoporosity of collagen-apatite interfaces in bone, ECM nanotopography) and devising strategies that mimic naturally occurring phenomena (e.g. mussel attachment). In this context, our team has employed bio-derived materials and bio-inspired structures towards the creation of platforms and interfaces to investigate and control cellular events. In particular, we successfully reproduced a bioactive nanoporosity on titanium, the gold standard in medicine, by simple chemical and electrochemical methods, capable of positively affecting cell activity providing antibacterial properties. Anodization permitted not only to create semiordered nanotubular surfaces which can be tuned in terms of diameter and spacing, but also a nanometric 3-dimensional hierarchical surface that mimics that of biologically successful life forms such as diatoms. Moreover, we are currently working on understanding the effects on cells of poly(dopamine), an adhesive polymer derived from mussels, as a multifunctional layer for direct cueing to cells. In parallel, our team has also contributed to the development of collagen- and chitosan-based materials for applications ranging from cardiac and neuronal tissue engineering to synthetic blood vessels and drug delivery platforms.

Media Training : science communication for TV & Radio
2017-10-11
Training activity in transferable skills.
Dates:
11th October 2017, from 9 am to 6 pm.
In person class sessions = 8 hours. One whole day.
Target group:
Group Leaders and Senior Researchers.
Provider: Kristin Raabe.
