Institutional news

To round off its first Faster Future fundraising campaign, IBEC is organizing an exclusive European film première of “I’ll Push You”, the inspiring story of Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray, the first people to complete the Camino de Santiago in a wheelchair.

Over the past 20 years, a progressive neuromuscular disease has slowly taken away Justin’s ability to use his arms and legs. He requires daily assistance in every aspect of life such as eating, bathing and getting dressed. In the spring of 2012, Justin asked his best friend Patrick if he would help him complete the Camino de Santiago, the 500-mile pilgrimage trail in Northern Spain. Patrick’s response was simple and direct: “I’ll push you.”

Representatives from IBEC were in Boston, Massachusetts last week taking part in a business mission to accelerate the application of 3D printing to health.

Alongside companies Avinent, Diopma, Mastertec, Neos Surgery, Servocad Microtronics, Tractivus and Ventura Medical, as well as the Althaia Foundation, Fira de Barcelona and Hospital Clínic, Head of Tech Transfer Xavier Rubies—accompanied by Scientific Coordinator Mateu Pla—visited hospitals, technology centers and local laboratories and meet with investors and companies in the region to find financing, new partners or customers.

IBEC is the recipient of one of twelve MIT-Spain ”la Caixa” Foundation Seed Fund grants under a brand new funding programme in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The media presentation of the grants at Palau Macaya took place this morning, when IBEC Director Josep Samitier took part in a press conference. During the presentation Angel Font, Corporate Director of Research and Strategy at the ”la Caixa” Banking Foundation, remarked particularly on IBEC’s strong capacity for gaining competitive funding.

The ”la Caixa” and MIT grants will aim to support research projects carried out jointly between Spanish universities and research groups and MIT research groups, boosting cooperation between faculty, researchers and students. The inititative is part of the MISTI Global Seed Funds programme, which promotes collaborations between MIT faculty and researchers and their counterparts abroad.

The Executive Council of the Sociedad de Biofísica de España has awarded the 2018 Enrique Pérez-Payá SBE-40 prize to Pere Roca-Cusachs, IBEC group leader and associate professor at the UB, for his outstanding contributions to uncovering the physical basis of cellular responses to mechanical signals.

The prize has been awarded every year since 2010 and is in memory of Dr. Enrique Pérez-Payá, who contributed to the development, translation and internationalization of biophysics in Spain.

Pere will deliver a talk and receive his award at the 6th Iberian / 10th Iberoamerican Biophysics Congress in Castellón on 20th-22nd June.

Two projects coordinated by IBEC group leaders have been successful in gaining funding through the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology’s IGNITE call, which promotes the initiation of new collaborations among BIST researchers and accelerate multidisciplinary research.

The projects were two of just five that were selected in the 2017 call to be funded through IGNITE’s seed phase. The researchers will have eight months to develop them, after which, in a second phase, an additional award for a further 12 months is given to the two best projects from the five selected during the seed phase.

Observing photosynthesis is at the heart of the Quantum-controlled Single Protein Electron Transport (Q-SPET) project, coordinated by IBEC Group Leader and ICREA research professor Pau Gorostiza and Niek van Hulst at ICFO, which aims to measure quantum effects in photosynthetic protein complexes.

An IBEC group has been awarded EU funding to coordinate a project that aims to train through research a new generation of researchers in bio-orthogonal catalysis for cancer therapy. Thanks to the Marie Curie ITN funding, the twelve consortium members of the THERACAT European Training Network – located in Spain, The Netherlands, Switzerland, UK and Israel – will be able to provide researchers with state-of-the-art multidisciplinary scientific training in the field of bio-orthogonal catalysis.

SOMMa, the alliance of Spain’s 25 Severo Ochoa centres – including IBEC – and 16 María de Maeztu units that aims to raise the national and international profile of science in the country, held a press launch on Monday at the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness in Madrid.

At the event, the representatives of SOMMa, together with the Secretary of State for R&D&I Carmen Vela, presented the new alliance. “Joining this alliance allows us to join forces, increase our impact and encourage collaboration and networking,” said Teresa García-Milà, vice-president of SOMMa and director of the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (BGSE). “In short, we are enriching the R&D system of this country in the long term.”

IBEC is one of the research centres that are transforming Barcelona into a global science hub: this was the rationale behind the visit on Thursday of 25 members of Barcelona Global, the association that aims to make Barcelona a magnet for talent and economic activity.

The delegates enjoyed a viewing of IBEC’s video, a general presentation of the institute from director Josep Samitier, and then a short tour of the some of IBEC’s laboratories.

The visit was part of an initiative to bring Barcelona Global’s members to the leading research centers in the city that are contributing to its status as a global science hub. As well as visiting IBEC, the delegates also went to the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.

The Spanish Platform for Nanomedicine (NanoMedSpain), managed by IBEC, is participating once again in the Annual Conference of Technological Platforms of Biomedical Research in Barcelona today and tomorrow.

This yearly conference, organised by the four national platforms – Innovative Medicines, Nanomedicine, Health Technology and Biotechnology Markets – presents the latest advances in -omics technology and digitalization in the health sector from the standpoint of biomedical research.

The seven BIST centres – including IBEC – have a stand at this year’s Youth Mobile Festival (YoMo), part of the Mobile World Congress that’s taking place this week.

The stand will feature different hands-on activities on different days, all of which will be based on the research being carried out in the BIST centres.

More than 15,000 youngsters are expected to pass through the festival, which is being held at La Farga in l’Hospitalet, during the festival’s run from today to Friday.