IBEC Principal Investigator Irene Marco Rius has been selected for the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant call to carry out her project ‘LIFETIME’. The project focuses on the study of individual cancer metabolism, which is crucial for less invasive early diagnosis and personalised treatments.
The researcher at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant. This prestigious European funding supports excellent scientists and scholars who are consolidating their independent research teams to pursue their most promising scientific ideas. The €2 million grant over 5 years will allow Bolognesi and her team to develop a new method for identifying mutations that lead to the formation of amyloids—aggregates of proteins that contribute to a variety of diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
The event was inaugurated by IBEC’s Director, Josep Samitier, who presented an overview on the cutting-edge research carried out at the institute in the fields of bioengineering and nanomedicine.
Afterwards, ERC Grantees working at IBEC had the opportunity to explain the impact of ERC grants on their professional careers and established a dialogue with ERC President on the past, present and future of the European Research Council.
The Nanoscopy for Nanomedicine junior group leader was successful in the European Research Council’s 2017 call for Starting Grants, of which just 17 out of the total of 406 have been awarded to scientists working in Spain.Lorenzo’s project, “Design of Nanomaterials for Targeted Therapies Guided by Super Resolution Imaging” (NANOSTORM), plans to use super resolution microscopy to examine nanomaterials that have potential as therapies for cancer, and understand their interactions with their target: the diseased cells. Doing so will help identify the key principles that are needed to rationally design the next generation of targeted, super-efficient cancer treatments
This weekend Javier Ramon’s European Research Council-funded project, DAMOC, was one of eight highlighted in a special exhibition in Madrid to mark the ERC’s tenth anniversary.Alcobendas’ Museo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (MUNCYT) displayed the most “outstanding” projects led by researchers in Spain as part of a full weekend of activities to celebrate the first decade of the prestigious funding body, which was launched in 2007 by the European Union and has funded nearly 7,000 researchers, among them six Nobel Prize winners.
IBEC group leader and ICREA research professor Pau Gorostiza was one of nine ERC Proof of Concept holders to take part in the European Business Angel Network (EBAN) Winter University this week in Copenhagen.Pau pitched his project, THERALIGHT: Therapeutic Applications of Light-Regulated Drugs, to the investors from all over the world at the event, which he attended alongside eight other awardees specially selected by the ERC. Together they made up nearly half of the 20 European start-ups hoping to catch the eye of an investor interested in exploring the innovation potential of their findings.
On Friday the ceremony took place of the first ever Asociación Catalana de Entidades de Investigación (ACER) Award, which was given to three of the key people who made possible the existence of the European Research Council (ERC). IBEC’s own ERC-supported scientists attended the ceremony, as did IBEC director Josep Samitier, who is on the Board of Directors of ACER.