Institutional news

IBEC gains a new group leader this month, with Prof. Silvia Muro joining the institute as an ICREA research professor to lead her Targeted Therapeutics and Nanodevices group.

In her new position, she will carry out research into macromolecular nano-assemblies which can be loaded with drugs to target the chronic conditions that affect our pediatric and ageing populations, such as neurodegenerative, cardiovascular or metabolic diseases, as well as cancer.

Prof. Muro spent the last nine years at the University of Maryland, first as an Assistant Professor and then as a tenured Associate Professor with a joint appointment in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering and the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research.

IBEC group leader and ICREA professor Pau Gorostiza has won the research grant ‘FUNDALUCE 2016’ for a project that aims to develop prosthetic molecular switches that could replace degenerated photoreceptors in the retina to restore vision.

“Fotoconmutadores covalentes para el control remoto de receptores endógenos”, which will be carried out with collaborators at IQAC-CSIC, the Universidad Miguel Hernández, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares and the Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante, proposes the concept of nanoprosthesis: that if a functional characteristic of an organ or tissue is regulated by a given receptor, it should be possible to use directed covalent photoswitches to control that particular receptor with light, thereby manipulating their function.

IBEC group leader Elena Martínez gave the opening speech at Tuesday’s Premis Extraordinaris de Batxillerat 2016-2017 ceremony at the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya.

IBEC regularly hosts young winners of the prestigious award, which is the government’s recognition of excellence for students completing their baccalaureate studies in the two years before university. To qualify, candidates need their total mark for the entire baccalaureate to equal or be more than 8,75.

As well as being something to put on their CV, the award offers exemption from university fees for the first year, a free course at an official language school, the possibility to participate in the National Baccalaureate Awards, and a stay in a research institution related to the student’s field of interest.

Directors and representatives of Spain’s 25 Severo Ochoa centres – including IBEC’s Josep Samitier – and 16 María de Maeztu units gathered in Madrid yesterday to launch SOMMa, an alliance aimed at raising the national and international profile of science in Spain.

Secretary of State for R&D+I Carmen Vela chaired the kick-off meeting, which defined the strategic and working plan for the coming months. Luis Serrano, director of Barcelona’s Centre for Genomic Regulation, will head the alliance over the next two years, while Teresa Garcia-Milà, director of the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, will be its vice-president.

SOMMa will achieve its goal by promoting the exchange of knowledge, technology and best practices among its centres and units and with the international scientific community and other stakeholders, by cooperating with other research centres in Spain to strengthen the R&D+i system, and by being a voice in Spanish and European science policy.

This morning, about 35 members of staff from the Generalitat’s Direcció General de Recerca (DGR) came to the PCB to visit IBEC and the IRB, the two CERCA centres located there.

Director General of Research Francesc Subirada and Assistant Director General Iolanda Font de Rubinat and their colleagues – who work in finance, HR, IT and other administration roles – carry out visits like this every year to find out what goes on at the organizations that are members of CERCA, the Generalitat’s institution that supervises, supports and facilitates the activities of Catalonia’s research centres. In previous years they’ve also visited the PPRB and ICFO.

The joint program for the morning started with institutional talks by directors Josep Samitier (IBEC) and Joan Guinovart (IRB), pictured above, followed by a coffee break and then a tour of some of the labs and platforms of both the centres.

Registration for high school students is open until 23rd October for “Bojos per la Ciència” (Crazy about Science), the Fundació Catalunya-La Pedrera initiative that aims to encourage scientific vocation.

2018 will be the first year that IBEC takes part in the programme, first launched in 2013, which offers courses – held on a series of Saturdays throughout the year – to selected high school students who show aptitude in science.

The theoretical-practical sessions taught by researchers at the participating research centers, which include IRB, CREI, ICN2, ICIQ and more, cover topics such as biochemistry, biomedicine, economics, physics, food, mathematics, nature, new technologies and chemistry.

This week IBEC is attending the second edition of “IN(3D)USTRY: From Needs to Solutions”, the international meeting devoted to 3D printing.

The institute has a stand in the exhibition area, where Head of Technology Transfer Xavier Rubies, Technology Transfer manager Xavier Puñet and Nanotechnology Platform Coordinator Mateu Pla are welcoming visitors interested in finding out more about IBEC’s 3D bioprinting capabilities.

Yesterday lunchtime IBEC director Josep Samitier gave a talk about the challenges and possibilities of 3D bioprinting, where he outlined some of IBEC’s relevant projects including the cardiac regeneration research by Nuria Montserrat’s group and the bioreactors being developed by Elena Martinez.

Yesterday and today IBEC has been exhibiting at the Coventry Life Festival in the UK, a celebration of active ageing which is taking place in the university town not far from Birmingham.

Sunday saw more than 1000 middle-aged and elderly residents and their families flock to the city for the Vitality Marketplace, a showcase of resources and information about healthy and active ageing.

Supported by EIT health, IBEC’s stand is demonstrating the 3D bioprinting techniques being optimised in the institute to tackle age-related disease by creating biomaterials to aid the regeneration of organs such as the heart, as well as giving out information about the institute to potential masters and PhD students.

The Spanish Platform for Nanomedicine (NANOMED Spain), the Spanish Platform for Innovation in Healthcare Technology and the HealthTech Cluster came together today for a conference on 3D printing and its applications in the health sector in Barcelona.

Clinical researchers from all over Spain, hospitals, health authorities and representatives of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and health technology companies, among others, met to discuss the use of 3D bioprinting – 3D printing with cells – whose potential in the field of health, and particularly in tissue and organ regeneration, is huge. During the event’s three round table discussions, they talked about the current situation, future prospects and challenges presented by this new technology.