Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia

IBEC Students calçotada!
2018-03-17 11:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Madrid)
Calçotada 2018 (PDF)

IBEC PhD thesis defence: Laura Urrea
2018-03-16 11:00 - 13:00 | Aula de Graus, Faculty of Biology, Diagonal, 643, Barcelona, Spain
Funciones de la proteína priónica celular, a-sinucleína y Reelina en enfermedades neurodegenerativas
Laura Urrea, Molecular and cellular neurobiotechnology group
Laura will be defending her PhD thesis this Friday 16th March at 11h in the Aula de Graus, Faculty of Biology, UB.
Everybody is welcome to attend.
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If you’re an IBEC PhD student and would like to advertise your PhD defence on the IBEC calendar, please contact vleigh@ibecbarcelona.eu

Mitigating bias: promoting diversity and sustainable excellence in research
2018-03-07 11:00 - 13:00 | Sala Dolors Aleu, Cluster II, Parc Científic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Joint seminar organized by the IRB Barcelona and IBEC Equality and Diversity Committee
Claartje Vinkenburg, VU University Amsterdam
Claartje Vinkenburg, PhD, is associate professor of organizational behaviour and independent expert consultant. Dr Vinkenburg’s research activities, partly funded by the European Research Council, deal with gender and ethnic diversity in professional and academic careers as well as with sustainability in combining career and care.
This 2-hour seminar aims to explore and explain the concept, causes and consequences of implicit or unconscious bias and how it affects careers, workplace culture, and work-family reconciliation in research organizations. In addition, ways to effectively promote diversity and inclusion in research by learning how to mitigate bias in the scientific career progression will be addressed.
Open to all IBEC members and IRB Barcelona.
If you’d like to attend, please send an email to hr@ibecbarcelona.eu before 15:00h on February 23th (Remember to put your supervisor in CC).

IBEC PhD thesis defence: Sergio Oller
2018-03-06 11:00 - 13:00 | Sala de Graus Eduard Fontseré, Martí i Franquès, 1-11, Barcelona, 08028
“Data processing for Life Sciences Measurements with Gas Chromatography – Ion Mobility Spectrometry”
Sergio Oller, Signal and Information Processing for Sensing Systems group
Sergi will be defending his PhD thesis this Tuesday 6th March at 11h in the Sala Eduard Fontserè, Faculty of Physics, UB.
Everybody is welcome to attend.
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If you’re an IBEC PhD student and would like to advertise your PhD defence on the IBEC calendar, please contact vleigh@ibecbarcelona.eu

IBEC Seminar: Johanna Ivaska
2018-02-28 10:00 - 11:00 | IBEC, floor 11, Tower I, Baldiri Reixac 4-8, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Mechanosensitive regulation of cancer and pluripotency
Johanna Ivaska, Turku Centre for Biotechnology, University of Turku, Finland
Tissue homeostasis is dependent on the spatially controlled localization of specific cell types and the correct composition of the extracellular stroma. Integrin mediated adhesions, in conjunction with the actin cytoskeleton, allow cells to sense the stiffness of the surrounding extra-cellular matrix (ECM). Conversely, cells exert acto-myosin and integrin dependent forces to remodel and organize the surrounding ECM. In cancer, stiffening of the tumor stroma is considered as an instrumental contributor to tumor progression. However, the mechanisms how stromal ECM regulates cancer progression is not fully understood. I will describe our recent findings on the interrelationship between cancer cell mediated ECM remodelling and ECM induced mechanochemical signals regulating transcription of growth promoting pathways in cancer cells. Reprogramming and survival of human pluripotent stem cells is heavily influenced by their adhesion to the underlying ECM. We have recently investigated the link between ECM-adhesion, the actin cytoskeleton and cell contractility in maintenance of pluripotency. I will describe our recent efforts to define the stem-cell adhesion structure in nanoscale and how it contributes to maintenance of pluripotency.

PhD Discussions Sessions: Aida Baelo and Arnau Biosca
2018-02-23 10:00 - 23:00 | IBEC, floor 11, Tower I, Baldiri Reixac 4-8, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
From the understanding to the treatment of biofilm wound infections
Aida Baelo, Bacterial infections: antimicrobial therapies group
Wounds represent a very common and serious health problem worldwide. The exposure of host tissue to the external environment allows the proliferation of a broad variety of pathogenic microorganisms, causing severe infections that are difficult to eradicate, such as diabetic foot ulcers, burn and surgery wounds. Bacteria infecting wounds arrange themselves in polymicrobial communities known as biofilms. The features displayed by the biofilm hinder and delay the healing processes, as such bacterial communities exhibit higher resistance to antibiotics and higher ability to evade the immune response. The understanding of the interaction between the components of this microbial community within the host is essential in order to develop new healing strategies that target bacteria growing in wounds. However, classic culture methods do not allow the simultaneous co-culture of different bacterial species, or the study in a more-realistic infection site environment, where several host factors are presented.
We use a novel in vitro culture approach, optimizing a method to assess bacterial viability in a wound biofilm model. This in vitro multispecies biofilm model resembles the natural conditions present in wounds and allows us to study a Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus co-culture, which are the predominant bacteria found in wounds. We show that P. aeruginosa and S. aureus reach an equilibrium in the wound-like environment, with both microorganisms replicating under these conditions. As replication is a crucial step to initiate an infection, we have first focused on the study of the differential role of the different P. aeruginosa Ribonucleotide Reductase (RNR) enzymes in bacterial growth within the wound biofilm model, as RNR are essential enzymes in DNA replication. Also, we use a set of biofilm-degrading enzymes targeting the wound biofilm so as to improve the antibiotic delivery in the local area of the infection site.
New antimalarial strategies and drug delivery systems based on nanotechnology
Arnau Biosca, Nanomalaria joint group
Despite the undeniable importance of malaria elimination on the global research agenda, available front-line drugs are rapidly loosing efficacy. Thus, alternative therapeutic strategies working through radically new mechanism are urgently needed. Also, improving the delivery of old antimalarial compounds to decrease their side effects and avoid resistance appearance is a priority. In this work we study two new antimalarial strategies and two new delivery systems.
First, using a combinational approach that uses experimental data and bioinformatics, we are exploring the cytotoxicity of protein aggregation on Plasmodium falciparum parasites as a new antimalarial strategy. He have observed and purified highly insoluble protein aggregates form living parasites from which we have selected a list of potential protein candidates to be tested as antimalarial agents. Also, we are investigating the antimalarial properties of Domiphen bromide (DMB) a highly hydrophobic compound predicted to inhibit a key enzyme of the 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol-4-phosphate (MEP) pathway, absent in humans and found on the apicoplast organelle, a relic chloroplast of Plasmodium parasites.
Second, malaria eradication calls for strategies to reduce the transmission of the parasite from the human host to the mosquito vector. In this regard, and taking as a template the previously immunoliposome model developed in our group, we are now engineering a dual immunoliposome that targets gametocytes, the transmissible form of the parasite, and is loaded with two distinctive drugs. On the bilayer, the hydrophobic drug DMB is incorporated, and on the aqueous phase, the potent anti-gemetocidal compound, pyronoridine tetraphosphate, is actively encapsulated.
Finally, curcumin, a natural compound found in turmeric (Curcuma longa) presents promising antimalarial activity in vitro, but its low stability and intestinal absorption compromise their effectiveness in vivo. In this regard, we are working on the development of polymeric nanovectors for the improved abortion of curcumin in the intestinal mucosa.

Nano World Cancer Day 2018
2018-02-02 08:00 - 17:00
Fifth edition of the Nano World Cancer Day, February 2nd: ten simultaneous events
Austria, France, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and United Kingdom.

The Nano World Cancer Day 2018 is an event organized in the framework of the World Cancer Day (February 4th). It aims to amplify awareness about Nanomedicine and its ability to introduce new opportunities and game changers in the fight against cancer.
Simultaneous dynamic and informative events dedicated to press, students and Physicians are organized in 10 countries across Europe and beyond.
The Nano World Cancer Day offers a chance to discover the revolutions provided by Nanomedicine in healthcare:
Nanomedicine: disruptive innovations to beat cancer
In each country, local experts in Nanomedicine (researchers, entrepreneurs, oncologists, clinicians, public authorities, patients…) will deliver short speeches about the latest concrete and disruptive innovations in Nanomedicine and answer all questions the audience may have.
Initiated in 2013, the Nano World Cancer Day is an event organized by the European Technology Platform on Nanomedicine (ETPN) supported by European Project ENATRANS (Enabling NAnomedicine TRANSlation).

More details here: http://events.ibecbarcelona.eu/nwcd2018/

Sangeet Sabha - an Indian classical music evening at the PCB
2018-02-01 18:00 - 21:00 | Sala Dolors Aleu, Cluster II, Parc Científic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Only a few places left! Sign up here by 25th January 2018.
