Institutional news

IBEC Director Josep Samitier has been elected as fellow of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

An institution with much influence in society, IEC promotes and develops research and study into all elements of Catalan culture, and is best known for its work in standardizing the Catalan language. It was founded in 1907 by Enric Prat de la Riba, then president of Barcelona County Council who would go on to be the first president of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya, and its members have included the likes of August Pi i Sunyer, Àngel Guimerà and Pompeu Fabra. IEC has been a member of the International Union of Academies since 1922.

IBEC group leader and ICREA research professor Samuel Sánchez is to receive an ERC Proof of Concept grant to explore the innovation potential of some of his research.

His project “Active microcleaners for water remediation” (Microcleaners) will tackle the huge rise in pollutants in water that has been the result of the massive growth in industrial, domestic and agricultural activities.

The tiny Microcleaners – based on the same technology Samuel uses for his self-propelled nanorobots that are designed for applications in nanomedicine, such as drug delivery – are active self-mixing and multifunctional systems capable of cleaning chemical and biological pollutants.

“NanoChristmas trees with lipoballs” (left) by Xavier Fernández Busquets and Marc Cirera was the winning image in the PCB’s first Instagram photo competition ‘Un dia al PCB’ at the end of December.

The Nanomalaria joint unit’s winning submission is a cryo-transmission electron microscope image of liposomes being assayed for the encapsulation of drugs specifically targeted to red blood cells infected by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. The competition, which was open to the more than 2000 people who make up the PCB community, aimed to create a mosaic of image for Instagram that depicts a snapshot of life at the park on a typical day.

The life and career of IBEC Director Josep Samitier is one of the “28 Historias de Ciencia e Innovación Biomédica en España/28 Stories of Science and Biomedical Innovation in Spain” in a book launched yesterday by the Fundación Botin in Madrid.

The book celebrates the foundation’s ten years of close collaboration with some of the top scientists in Spain in the field of biomedicine under its Technology Transfer programme, working together to develop products or services that improve quality of life and provide business and investment opportunities. IBEC’s partnership with the foundation has been in regard to the technology transfer of results obtained by the Nanobioengineering group within the project ‘Desarrollo de Tecnologías en Bionanomedicina para diagnóstico y terapia’.

IBEC group leader Samuel Sánchez was one of the experts invited to attend the Innovators Under 35 European Summit in Brussels last week, a gathering of the European winners of MIT Technology Review’s “Innovators under 35” list.

Samuel gave a talk, “The Evolution of Nanorobots”, at the event, which brought together the winners of the prestigious recognition from Germany, Belgium, France, Italy and Poland as well as Spain. The summit aimed to create a strong community of those innovators recognized annually by the prestigious publication to share their knowledge and experience in fields ranging from nanotechnology and energy to software or transportation.

A research project involving IBEC group leader and ICREA research professor Pau Gorostiza has been chosen for funding under a Call for Expressions of Interest (CEol) on Systems and Cognitive Neuroscience by the Human Brain Project (HBP) FET Flagship.

The four selected projects from the total of 57 proposals submitted address ambitious cognitive and systems neuroscience questions and rely on the collaboration of researchers from different European countries. The project involving Pau, Wave Scaling Experiments and Simulations (WaveScalES), is coordinated by Pier Stanislao Paolucci at the Instituto Nazionale di Fisica in Rome and will study the neuronal networks underling sleep and wakefulness under normal conditions and in disease.

IBEC group leader Samuel Sanchez was one of the experts and professionals invited to take part in CEDE’s “Talento en Crecimiento” event at the Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos in A Coruña at the beginning of the month.

He took to the stage with some of the most influential business leaders, entrepreneurs and experts in the country, including Francisco Reynes, CEO of Abertis, Juan Urdiales, co-founder of Jobandtalent, and Maria Salamero, Director of Innovation and Knowledge at Agbar, all of which were there to give the 500 young attendees advice on career advancement, personal branding, mobility and employability.

The 100XCIENCIA “Communicating frontier science” forum took place last week in Santa Cruz de La Palma. IBEC Director Josep Samitier was one of the twenty directors that presented their Severo Ochoa Centres of Excellence to the assembled science communicators and journalists, including the New York Times’ Kenneth Chang.

The three-day unprecedented event also included round tables during which the directors, journalists and other professionals including European Commission representatives could discuss topics such as science policy, science in the media, and the impact of outreach activities.

This morning IBEC had the chance to show off its research facilities and investigators to Carmen Vela, Spain’s secretary of state for research, development and innovation.

After inaugurating the IBEC-organized B·Debate on “Future Tools for Biomedical Research” at CosmoCaixa at the beginning of the day, Mrs. Vela was taken on a tour of IBEC’s laboratories, where she chatted with heads of research groups – including Nuria Monserrat, Samuel Sanchez, Elena Martinez, Eli Engel, Lorenzo Albertazzi and Pau Gorostiza – about their work. Afterwards, Mrs. Vela enjoyed morning coffee with IBEC’s directorate and several more group leaders.