Advances in odour sensing technologies and artificial intelligence have given impetus to the use of smell in various fields, such as food safety, disease diagnosis, security, and the environment. Current electronic noses, based on electronic sensors, have considerable limitations in terms of sensitivity, reliability, and selectivity.
The research team of Artificial Olfaction at IBEC, led by Santiago Marco, organized the Summer School of the International Society for Olfaction and Chemical Sensing (ISOCS). It was held from September 28th, to October 2nd of 2009, at Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, Barcelona, Spain. This Summer School was supported by the FP7 Neurochem European project, coordinated by the IBEC’s research team.
The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the Bellvitge Institute for Biomedical Research (IDIBELL) have signed a collaboration agreement for the development of joint research projects. The agreement is part of the BIOPOL project.
IBEC will participate at Symbiosis, the 14th European Congress on Biotechnology, one of the largest and most relevant events of Biotechnology in Europe. This congress is organised every 2 years by the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB) in Barcelona. The IBEC Director, Prof Josep A. Planell, will be addressing the conference audience on Tuesday 15th September to explain the Institute´s mission and scientific programme.
From 7th to 11th September, Barcelona will host the Trends in Nanotechnology (TNT) 2009 conference. This high-level scientific meeting provides a broad insight into top level research in all the areas of nanoscience and nanotechnology, as well as information to the nano community on related policy, regulation and networking initiatives, organised into a series of specific sessions.
Tsukuba, Japan. On 24th of July NIMS (National Institute for Materials Science) of Japan, and IBEC (Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for collaboration on the “Design of Biomaterials Surfaces and Biosensors for Cell Function Manipulation and Analysis”.
The first cover of a top nano-science journal this month features the work of several IBEC researchers. The journal Small (Volume 5. No. 11 – June 5 2009) dedicates its cover to a paper published by four researchers from IBEC´s BioNanoPhotonics group led by Dra. María García-Parajo and two scientists from the Nijmegen Center for Molecular Life Sciences (NCMLS), in the Netherlands.
The Cystic Fibrosis Association of Catalonia (Asociación Catalana de Fibrosis Quística) provides active support to the research conducted by Doctor Eduard Torrents, a member of IBEC´s Microbial Biotechnology and Host-Pathogen Interaction Group, into the enzyme that promotes the growth of the bacteria linked to this disease.
An article by Dr. Xavier Trepat, senior researcher of IBEC´s Cellular and respiratory biomechanics group and the Department of Physiology Sciences of the University of Barcelona, contributes for the first time an experimental answer to the question of how cells move during biological processes as diverse as the development, metastasis, or regeneration of tissues.
Members of IBEC Scientific Advisory Board and the directors of the Institute held their annual meeting, to follow up on the scientific activities developed by the fourteen lines of research that operate in the centre.