Research news Archives - Page 26 of 33 - Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia

June 11, 2016July 9, 2015

Findings on seizure susceptibility open new avenues to understanding epilepsy in rapid progressive dementia

IBEC researchers have revealed the role played by the cellular prion protein (PrPC) – which is associated with a plethora of biological functions including cell proliferation, differentiation and signaling – in epilepsy.

In the latest edition of Scientific Reports, a Nature group journal, the Molecular and Cellular Neurobiotechnology group and their collaborators outline findings that could lead to a better understanding of rapid neurodegenerative diseases that involve epileptic fits, such as Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD).

June 15, 2015

How cells cope with stress and strain

A study by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) reveals how cells withstand breakage during the constant changes in shape and volume experienced in most biological processes

During critical biological processes such as embryonic development, breathing, the pumping of the heart, wound healing and tumor growth, the body’s cells are stretched and distorted to adapt to their environment. The cell’s membrane, though, is rigid and inflexible. So how does it withstand all these constant deformations, so that it doesn’t break?

June 12, 2015

New malaria strategy proposes using unaffected red blood cells as drug carriers

IBEC and ISGlobal’s joint unit, Nanomalaria, has published a new therapeutic strategy against malaria.

The study, which appeared in the current edition of the Journal of Controlled Release, tackles a major hurdle in malaria treatments, which is that most antimalarial drugs start working on the infected cell quite late in Plasmodium’s life cycle, when their effect is often too short to be lethal to the parasite. The work has been done in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline, as one of the few cases of partnerships involving industry in the research and development of innovative antimalarial nanomedicines.

October 20, 2015April 28, 2015

IBEC groups join forces to combat chronic bacterial infections

A study published today in the Journal of Controlled Release describes a new nanoparticle strategy able to target hard-to tackle infections caused by biofilm-forming bacteria.

Two IBEC groups have worked together to develop a new type of nanoparticle to help fight chronic illness caused by biofilm-forming bacteria.

April 24, 2015April 24, 2015

Genetic “editing” a new tool to fight inherited disease

Researchers at the Hospital Clínic, IDIBAPS, the Hospital Sant Joan de Deu and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) have participated in a study, led by Dr. Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte of the Gene Expression Laboratory at California’s Salk Institute, that uses molecular “scissors” to remove mitochondrial mutations in mouse eggs.

For thousands of women worldwide who are carriers of a mitochondrial disease, having a healthy child can be a gamble.

August 26, 2015April 1, 2015

A new mechanism in cell communication that promotes cancer metastasis

Pioneering international study supported by the Obra Social “la Caixa” opens new possibilities to control metastasis

At a press conference at the Obra Social “la Caixa”’s Palau Macaya earlier today, Xavier Trepat, group leader at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), Enric Banda, director of the department of Science and Environment of the Obra Social ”la Caixa”, and Josep Samitier, director of IBEC, described a study published in Nature Cell Biology which sheds new light on how to control metastasis.

October 20, 2015March 18, 2015

New hope against growing threat of antibiotic resistance

The increasing prevalence of bacteria that are resistant to current antibiotics pose an escalating threat to human health. Now, researchers in Barcelona have identified a molecule with huge potential as a new type of antibacterial agent

Access to effective antibiotics is essential in all health systems. Their use has reduced childhood mortality and increased life expectancy, and they are crucial for invasive surgery and treatments such as cancer chemotherapy and organ transplants.

August 26, 2015March 2, 2015

A major step towards repairing the spinal cord

Researchers at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia and their collaborators reveal that they’re a step closer to optimizing cells able to guide regeneration of the spine

The olfactory system is an area of the body that can renew itself, and it does this by using olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) to guide newly formed axons – long projections of nerve cells – towards the body’s central nervous system. Naturally, researchers have already tried transplanting OECs to the spine, to see if this ability also works to promote axonal regeneration in spinal cord injuries and neural diseases.

October 19, 2015February 13, 2015

‘Fracking’ found in living tissues

$IBEC_fracking tejidos web$ In an article published in the journal Nature Materials, researchers at the IBEC and the UPC describe their discovery that ‘fracking’takes place in the body at a cellular level.

The work describes how hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking’ – most commonly known as the controversial technique to extract gas and petroleum from shale rock layers – also plays an important role in the epithelial tissues that lining the internal and external surfaces of our bodies.

January 28, 2015January 26, 2015

Wounds heal using a cellular ‘tug-of-war’

Researchers at IBEC reveal in a Nature Communications paper some surprising mechanics that drive epithelial gap closure in the absence of underlying layers

In a collaboration with their colleagues at the Mechanobiology Institute in Singapore, IBEC researchers have demonstrated that a kind of ‘tug-of-war’ takes place after our skin or other epithelial layer is damaged, particularly in cases where the tissue is chronicly or deeply injured.