Institutional news

This week IBEC group leader Elena Martinez is in Toulouse for the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF), the largest interdisciplinary science meeting in Europe, where she is taking part as a speaker.

Elena, who heads IBEC’s Biomimetic systems for cell engineering group, was invited to take part in the ‘Growing mini-organs on a petri dish: myth or reality’ session by the ERC, which funds her COMIET project with a Consolidator grant. COMIET aims to engineer epithelial tissue models that mimic the physiological characteristics found in the human intestine. Around 40 of the ERC’s grantees have been invited to take part in the funding body’s sessions at ESOF this year.

An IBEC project has won funding from the BBVA Foundation under its ‘Ayudas a Equipos de Investigación en Biomedicina’ funding programme.

ICREA research professor Samuel Sánchez’s Smart Nano-Bio-Devices group will receive the support for three years to develop their project ‘MEDIROBOTS: Precision nanobotomy against tumors’.

The project will develop biocompatible robots driven by enzymes with applications as drug release systems whose progress in vitro and in vivo can be traced using advanced molecular imaging techniques such as super-resolution microscopy.

Last month IBEC Director Josep Samitier was one of the panelists in a round table organised by the Cercle de Salut, an association devoted to improving the health system so that it may respond adequately to the challenges posed by society.

In the discussion at the Parc de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona (PRBB) entitled ‘L’excel·lència en la recerca, reptes immediats’, Josep and the other participants – ISGlobal director Antoni Plasencia and IrsiCaixa director Bonaventura Clotet – discussed the current situation of biomedical research in Catalonia. In particular, the hot topic under discussion was the impact that recent regulatory and administrative changes may have on its competitiveness.

An IBEC project pitch won third prize in a Technology Transfer Competition at last week’s Onco Emergence Forum.

The project, which is the brainchild of IBEC group leader Pere Roca-Cusachs and proposes the targeting of tumor mechanics to develop new drugs for oncology, specifically with pancreatic cancer in mind, was pitched by IBEC Technology Transfer manager Diana Gonzalez at the meeting on Friday.

Diana, involved in the project from its onset, was one of twelve finalists chosen to present in six-minute pitches to a panel of judges. The project was shortlisted because of its solid focus on an unmet medical, market or patient need, and because it proposed using innovative technology to create a product or service.

Today more than 300 researchers are meeting at CosmoCaixa to debate the latest scientific advances in cutting-edge fields at the yearly conference of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).

The gathering, promoted by the “la Caixa” Banking Foundation – which currently holds the vice-presidency of the BIST Board of Trustees – kicked off with a keynote speech by US scientist Barry C. Barish, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics, entitled ‘Gravitational Waves: From Einstein to a New Science’.

IBEC group leader Javier Ramón presented the state-of-the-art in 3D printing of biomaterials at a workshop organised by CatalunyaBio & HealthTech last week.

At ‘IDEACIÓ: Connecting CataloniaBio & HealthTech and Advanced Materials’ held at the headquarters of INNOVAMED in Barberà del Vallès on Friday, Javier presented the new and potential advanced materials being used in 3D bioprinting in the area of regenerative medicine.

Last weekend IBEC participated in Barcelona’s twelfth Festival de la Ciència with a host of activities.

Kicking off IBEC’s proceedings on Saturday morning were some activities led by the SPECS group, starting with the workshop ‘Biomimetic Robots to Understand Our Behavior’, which offered a glimpse at the way robotics can help us study aspects of brain function, such as learning, and our behaviour. SPECS’ robot, Nao, was one of the volunteers helping to run the workshop.

Attendees could also try out the group’s Rehabilitation Gaming System, a virtual-reality tool that helps restore motor activity and cognition after a brain injury.

This month saw the kick-off of the RIS3CAT LLAVOR 3D Community, a partnership of Catalan entities – including IBEC – which will develop projects in additive manufacturing and 3D printing.

Coordinated by Leitat, and part of the RIS3CAT strategy of research and innovation for the smart specialization of Catalonia, the Community will bring together 31 SMEs, large companies, research centres and universities. Together they’ll work on four projects, ultimately accelerating their development and adoption by the industrial sector to improve competitiveness.

Yesterday Nanomed Spain-organised ‘Jornada sobre Nanotoxicidad’ (Workshop on Nanotoxicity) welcomed almost 100 attendees from all over Spain.

The day focused on a new discipline, the study of toxicity produced by the effect of nanoparticles and nanomaterials. Nanotoxicity has emerged as manufactured nanoparticles can have properties and effects that are very different from those of the same materials in conventional sizes, or can have the same dimensions as certain biological molecules and interact with them, posing new risks to health.