DONATE

IBEC

Fiona Watt, member of IBEC’s ISC, appointed as EMBO Director

Fiona Watt, Director of the Centre for Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine at King’s College London, and member of IBEC´s International Scientific Committee (ISC), has been appointed as new Director of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). The British cell biologist will take up the appointment in early 2022.

IBEC receives a visit from the Mayor of Barcelona interested in our research against Covid19

The Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, visited IBEC facilities last Friday to learn, by our Director and a group of researchers, how bioengineering can help find solutions to health problems such as COVID19, cancer, or degenerative diseases.

When in early 2020, more than 200 scientists gathered in La Pedrera in Barcelona to discuss the present and future of bioengineering, no one imagined that the world would experience the first pandemic of the 21st century and that science would take on more importance than ever.

Researchers at IBEC help identifying a drug in clinical phase that blocks the effects of SARS-Co-V2

IBEC researchers led by ICREA Research Professor Núria Montserrat, together with international collaborators, have identified a drug capable of blocking the effects of the SARS-Co-V2 virus, the origin of the Coronavirus 2019 disease.

The treatment, which can be tested on two hundred Covid-19 patients as of today, has proven effective in mini-kidneys generated from human stem cells. Using hese organoids generated by bioengineering techniques, it has been deciphered how SARS-Co-V2 interacts and infects human kidney cells.

IBEC researchers contribute to an international study to regenerate infarcted hearts

Within the EU project BRAVƎ, experts at Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) combine cell therapy and bioengineering to design a biological device that recovers cardiac functionality in people with cardiovascular diseases.

Researchers at IBEC led by the ICREA Professor Núria Montserrat contribute to the EU project BRAVƎ, an initiative for cardiac regeneration that combines cell therapy and bioengineering to design a biological device capable of recovering cardiac functionality in people with coronary heart disease.

IBEC participates in an international study to stop coronavirus contagion

Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) led by Professor ICREA Núria Montserrat are studying the role of the receptor ‘Angiotensin converting enzyme’ (ACE2), one of the pathways that the SARS-Co-V2 virus uses to enter our body.

To do this, experts use mini-kidneys, as well as other cell cultures such as cardiac organoids. The goal is to exploit these mini-organs to better understand how the virus works.

Researchers at IBEC track how pathogens adapt to oxygen changes

The Bacterial Infections: Antimicrobial Therapies group at IBEC, led by Eduard Torrents, has developed a system capable of investigating how pathogens adapt to oxygen changes.

Using this technique, they have discovered that bacteria E. coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa can adapt to environmental changes through different mechanisms, which opens the door to better knowledge and treatment of infections.

IBEC bioengineers contribute to a heart implant

A group from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) led by Daniel Navajas contributes to an operation designed to repair the heart tissue of a 70-year-old patient who had suffered a heart attack. This was made possible by the creation of a bioimplant enriched with stem cells. The operation is the result of the joint work of scientists, doctors and engineers over more than ten years.

Joan Montero and colleagues in Boston suggest a new strategy for melanoma patients

IBEC researcher Joan Montero authors a paper in Nature Communications which uncovers a key adaptation that melanoma cancer cells use to evade current therapies. This finding might allow physicians to use better drug combinations to improve patient outcomes in the future.

Despite significant advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment, most targeted cancer therapies fail to achieve complete tumor regressions or durable remission. Understanding why these treatments are not always efficient has remained a main challenge for researchers and physicians. Now, Joan Montero from the IBEC and colleagues at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School in USA report in Nature Communications a mechanism that uncovers why some therapies fail to treat melanoma.