DONATE

Search Results for:

New IBEC group creates ‘fitness heatmaps’ of gene mutations

The start of the autumn semester finds a new face in IBEC’s research community, with Dr. Benedetta Bolognesi joining the institute as junior group leader.

Benedetta has come from Barcelona’s Centre for Genomic Regulation, where she was a postdoc in Ben Lehner’s and Gian Gaetano Tartaglia’s groups. At IBEC she will launch and lead the Protein Phase Transitions in Health and Disease group.

During her postdoc, Benedetta focused on why certain genes are toxic when over-expressed. She found that, in some cases, they cause toxicity because the proteins they code for end up forming a different liquid phase in the cytoplasm.

Sleep apnea could promote tumor growth in the young

A study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine has revealed that sleep apnea could promote the growth of lung cancer in younger individuals.

Researchers from IBEC, the University of Barcelona and Hospital Clinic show that, contrary to expectation, age could be a protective factor against the rapid tumor development induced by this respiratory disturbance of sleep and its immediate consequence, intermittent hypoxia.

A visitor from the Ministry

Today IBEC welcomed the new Director General of Research, Development, and Innovation of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MINECO) to meet some of the group leaders and hear about their research.

Dr. Teresa Riesgo Alcaide met IBEC’s directors and was taken on a tour of the laboratories of Samuel Sánchez, Josep Samitier, Xavier Trepat and Elena Martínez, as well as viewing IBEC’s 3D bioprinting facilities.

Dr. Riesgo was in town for the EIT Health Partner Assembly at Caixa Forum, an important event on the calendar for the network.

Biofilm project is sixth Caixaimpulse success for IBEC

IBEC is celebrating its sixth Caixaimpulse success, with Eduard Torrents’ project ‘BiofilmChip: personalized treatment for biofilm infections’ winning support in the programme’s fourth round.

Working in collaboration with Josep Samitier’s Nanobioengineering group, BiofilmChip will develop an easy-to-use device that allows biofilm-forming bacteria to be grown in vitro, enabling clinicians to evaluate the efficency of various antibiotics and determine the best individualized treatment for biofilm-infected patients. 20 projects from all over Spain and Portugal were awarded in this fourth round, selected from a total of 85 submissions.