Institutional news

IBEC is to be part of a revolution in fetal surgery and the research of prenatal diseases thanks to support by the Obra Social ”la Caixa” and Cellex foundations.

The two foundations are set to fund two major projects coordinated by the Fetal Medicine Research Centre, Fetal i+D (Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu). A fetal surgery part of the project, promoted by the Cellex Foundation, will improve the interventions currently being carried out, as well as developing new surgery to treat problems that currently lack solutions.

The Spanish Nanomedicine Platform (NanomedSpain), led by IBEC director Josep Samitier, is once again participating in the annual conference of Spain’s Plataformas Tecnológicas de Investigación Biomédica.

At the meeting, which is being held at the Hotel Crowne Plaze today and tomorrow, the keynote speaker invited by NanoMed Spain is Sylvia Bove, CEO of EIT Health. In addition, the Platform is organizing a parallel session on innovation in nanomedicine, in which various projects funded by the European programme H2020 will be presented. These success stories will include IBEC’s Elena Martinez’s ERC Consolidator grant to use biomimetic systems to study intestinal epithelium related diseases, as well as the SME Neos Surgery, which has received funding to complete the development of a new device for spine surgery.

More than 250 companies and public organizations met at Thursday’s Nit de CataloniaBio 2016, the annual forum for the sector, which this year had a special focus on the 10th anniversary of organiser CataloniaBio.

CataloniaBio is an association of companies, but the most relevant public institutions and research centers were invited, and IBEC was represented by director Josep Samitier and Xavier Rúbies and Diana Gonzalez from the Technology Transfer unit.

Also present at the event was the conseller of Health, Antoni Comín, the conseller of Business and Knowledge, Jordi Baiget, CataloniaBio president and Reig Jofre CEO Ignasi Biosca, and CataloniaBio vice-president and Kern Pharma’s Director of Strategy and Development Clara Campàs.

IBEC group leader and ICREA research professor Xavier Trepat has come third in the La Vanguardia Science Award.

Xavier was nominated, alongside the UPC’s Marino Arroyo, for their groups’ research into what happens at a cellular level when the body’s tissues are broken – work that was published last year in Nature Materials. Xavier and Marino gained 15.3% of the votes in a readers’ poll that was open throughout February to nominate the Spanish scientist or scientists that did the most important research during 2015.

The overall winner of the competition was Joan Seoane at VHIO for his work on lumbar puncture against cerebral tumours. Clara Soria-Valles and Fernando G. Osorio of the University of Oviedo came second for their work on the role of the NF-kB molecule in ageing.

IBEC group leader and ICREA research professor Samuel Sánchez is the winner of this year’s edition of the Círculo Ecuestre’s Premio Joven Relevante.

Samuel received the honour at a gala dinner last Thursday, where he was voted first of the three finalists by the members of the exclusive society. The prize recognizes and rewards an individual or team of people younger than 38 who has developed a project that brings significant change for the benefit of Catalan and Spanish society.

The Círculo Ecuestre was founded in 1856 by a group of middle-class Catalans united by a common interest – horse riding. It has since been a meeting point in Catalan society, and a place where current and past affairs are debated and culture, business and leisure are brought together. The club currently has 1565 members, of which 400 are under the age of 40, from all walks of life: economics, politics, society and culture.

On Monday IBEC Managing Director David Badia (left), on behalf of IBEC’s employees, presented the €665 raised by the institute at last December’s Christmas Celebration to the Arrels Fundació, a charity for the homeless in Barcelona’s Raval district.

Arrels director Ferran Busquets (right) was delighted to receive the funds, which were raised by generous IBECers who bought tickets for the tombola on 17th December. The money will go towards helping the 400 Arrels volunteers reach out to more than 1600 homeless people per year with support by way of clothing, medicine, psychological aid and accommodation.
“It was good to get to know more about the role of Arrels Fundació as an NGO in our city, and it also offered a chance for us to explain what IBEC is about,” commented David, who visited the foundation with Events Coordinator Pilar Jiménez.

The General Assembly of HealthTech Cluster, a consortium of companies, hospitals and research centres, including IBEC, took place at the UPC’s Campus Nord yesterday.

The meeting approved HealthTech Cluster’s strategic plan for 2016, with some of the main working groups focused on will be innovation, internationalisation and networking. The programme of presentations included IBEC Associated Researcher Alicia Casals, who gave a talk entitled “Robòtica Intel·ligent i Sistemes Assistencials“, and there was also a visit to her laboratory afterwards.

HealthTech Cluster was launched in July 2014 by ACCIO to promote the competitiveness of health technologies in Catalonia.

On Wednesday evening IBEC Director Josep Samitier will be a speaker at a free public lecture organised by the Secció de Ciència i Tecnologia de l’Ateneu Barcelonès as part of the association’s “+Humans: el futur de la nostra espècie” cycle.

In “Envelliment humà, on estan els límits?” Josep and another expert, Dr. Joan Guàrdia of the Institut de Recerca Cervell, Cognició i Conducta (IR3C) and psychology professor at the University de Barcelona, will share their views on human ageing, specificially the morphological and physiological changes that appear as a result of the action of time on human beings. The public event will will take place at the Sala Verdaguer of the Ateneu Barcelonès on Wednesday 10th February at 19:00.

IBEC group leader and ICREA research professor Xavier Trepat is one of the eight candidates nominated for this year’s edition of the La Vanguardia Science Award.

For four weeks, La Vanguardia readers are invited to vote for the Spanish scientist or scientists they think have done the most important research in the past year.
The eight finalists selected by the Scientific Advisory Committee of the prize, which is organised by Grupo Godó and the Catalunya-La Pedrera Foundation, have been selected according to their scientific excellence, with the only proviso being that they are all affiliated to a Spanish organisation.