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Institutional news

School research projects on bioengineering developed at IBEC have great success

Last March Alex Pachón, a stutent that did his research project at IBEC won the CRACKS Prize awarded each year by the University of Girona (UdG) thanks to his School Research Project on nanobiotechnology applied to cancer medicine. Filotea Crasovan won the Foro de Gracia contest.

Alex’s work, entitled ‘The secret of oncological medicine hidden in the nanoworld’, is one of the 25 school research projects tutored last year by IBEC researchers.

IBEC leads three new European projects

Bioengineering is a core discipline for the medicine of the future, and Europe knows that. Proof of this is that the European Union (EU) has granted during the last months the coordination of three European projects to the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) to continue combining medicine, science and technology with the aim of improving people’s health.

The first one is the BRIGHTER project that is led by Professor Elena Martínez, the head of the ‘Biomimetic Systems for Cell Engineering’ group. The EU has contributed to this initiative that will be used by the consortium partners to develop an innovative high resolution 3D bioprinting technology able to fabricate 3D cell culture substrates which could be useful to produce artificial organs in the future.

IBEC’s sixth reSearch4Talent open doors edition goes online

Fifty undergraduate and master students attended this year’s reSearch4Talent, this is the sixth time we’ve opened our doors to young scholars interested in a scientific career, but this time, virtually.

In 2019 IBEC signed more than 145 internship agreements for Undergraduate and Master Students who are at a key moment in their careers with a wide range of national and international universities.

IBEC receives a visit from the Mayor of Barcelona interested in our research against Covid19

The Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, visited IBEC facilities last Friday to learn, by our Director and a group of researchers, how bioengineering can help find solutions to health problems such as COVID19, cancer, or degenerative diseases.

When in early 2020, more than 200 scientists gathered in La Pedrera in Barcelona to discuss the present and future of bioengineering, no one imagined that the world would experience the first pandemic of the 21st century and that science would take on more importance than ever.

Research centres in Catalonia have conducted 20,000 PCR tests to date

The Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG), the National Center for Genomic Analysis (CNAG-CRG), part of CRG, the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) have analysed more than 20,000 samples to date using the PCR technique. In this regard, 17,547 samples have been tested at the CRG node and 5,248 at the PCB node.

The analyses are part of the Orfeu Programme, the mass screening initiative driven by the Government of Catalonia. As of today, the public health system in Catalonia can carry out up to 17,000 PCR tests every day. This number does not include the capacity of the Orfeu Programme, which can process up to 4,000 samples per day.

IBEC receives funding from Carlos III Health Institute to fight COVID-19 using bioengineering

The COVID-19 Fund managed by the Carlos III Health Institute has awarded more than 300,000 euros to the “ACE2-ORG” project led by ICREA research professor Núria Montserrat at IBEC.

The resources are intended to study COVID-19 and specify new therapeutic approaches against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and the University of Navarra also participate in this project.

IBEC supports the EU initiative “Coronavirus Global Response”

The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) supports the EU initiative to pledge funds for collaborative development of solutions against COVID19. Carmen Hurtado, from the Group of ICREA Professor Núria Montserrat at IBEC contributes to spread the word of “Coronavirus Global Response” initiative in a video for the European Commission.

The European Union and its partners are hosting an international pledging marathon that started last Monday 4 May 2020 and will be running until the end of May 2020.

IBEC’s director contributes to the new National Agreement for a Knowledge-based Society

On May 13, the new National Agreement for a Knowledge-based Society was presented at the appearance of the President of the Catalan Government and the Minister for Business and Knowledge.

This pact proposes the public policies that would have to be carried out so that Catalonia to becomes a leader in research and innovation at the international level.

IBEC stays connected – find out our online activities!

The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) has been readjusting its activities due to the Covid-19 health emergency. In this context, not only the research projects and facilities have been adapted to face the actual health crisis, but also the management, events, outreach and communication activities.

Since this confinement started, IBEC has launched different online initiatives, from scientific webinars to YouTube live experiments for the whole family.

Fausto, always in our thoughts

IBEC is saddened to announce the decease of Fausto Sanz, founding Group Leader of IBEC and Professor at the University of Barcelona. Professor Sanz took an active part in the creation of the Catalan Reference Center in Biomedical Engineering (CREBEC) and after in 2005, in the birth and development of IBEC as research institute.

Professor Sanz was always an enthusiast scientist and a pioneer in Catalonia in the field of electrochemistry, nanoscience, and the use of tunneling and atomic force microscopies. In memorandum of Professor Sanz, we recall this piece by Vienna Leigh.