Eduard Torrents Archives - Page 4 of 4 - Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia

May 28, 2020June 7, 2018

Bacteria need vitamins too

IBEC’s Bacterial infections: antimicrobial therapies group has revealed the essential role played by a vitamin in the development of a common bacterial biofilm.

This new knowledge could play a part in understanding the spread of these bacteria, which will help towards the better design of targeted antibacterial drugs.

P. aeruginosa bacteria cause chronic lung infections in patients with cystic fibrosis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by forming a mature biofilm – in which cells stick to each other and can grow on many different surfaces – that lets them grow and adapt.

June 4, 2020March 2, 2018

“Nous antibiòtics per a vells coneguts”

Wednesday’s episode of “Càpsules de ciència” on TV3, a series of 20 programmes dedicated to scientists working in biomedicine and biotechnology in Catalonia, featured IBEC’s Eduard Torrents.

May 28, 2020December 20, 2017

A molecular mechanism could explain how bacteria resist antibiotics

IBEC researchers have shown for the first time how bacteria make DNA under stressful conditions, such as drug treatments.

This new knowledge could help develop new antibiotics that work, tackling the urgent problem of antibiotic resistance.

The Bacterial infections: antimicrobial therapies group led by Dr. Eduard Torrents was studying the bacterial strain Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can cause severe chronic lung infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, leading to severely impaired lung function, an increased risk of respiratory failure, and death.

June 23, 2016

Mycobacterium in olive oil for cancer treatment

Researchers at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) have revealed a way to effectively deliver a mycobacterium needed for the treatment of bladder cancer in humans –using a formulation based on olive oil.

The researchers have found a way to reduce the natural clumping that occurs when mycobacteria cells, which possess a high content of lipids in their walls, are introduced to the usual aqueous solutions that are used for intravesical instillation in bladder cancer patients. This clumping may interfere with the interaction of the mycobacteria-host cells and negatively influence their antitumor effects.