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The second edition of IBEC’s Faster Future programme will be dedicated to the fight against Parkinson

The programme IBEC Faster Future, an initiative that aims to help accelerate research projects that are close to tackling major challenges in health, will enable the development of a new antibody that will be the base of a therapeutic product for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

The Faster Future program campaign “Let’s tackle Parkinson”, which is launched today and will remain open to donations until the 30th of April, has the aim to raise 50,000 € needed to accelerate this research, seeking to obtain favourable results within a year and a half.

A new technique allows researchers to focus the action of drugs via infrared light

A scientific team led by IBEC and UAB manages to efficiently activate molecules located inside cell tissues using two-photon excitation of with infrared light lasers. The results of the study has been published in Nature Communications.

Having absolute control of the activity of a molecule in an organism. Deciding when, where and how a drug is activated. These are some of the goals expected to be reached with the so-called photoswitchable molecules, compounds that, in the presence of certain light waves, change their properties. Today, thanks to the results of a study led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) together with the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the scientific community is one step closer to achieving this objective.

IBEC participates in the First Biennial Ciutat-Ciència 2019

IBEC is a driving force behind a major science festival that will be taking place across the city this year. The event was presented yesterday at a press conference held at the Amfiteatre Anatòmic de la Reial Acadèmia de Medicina and it is organized by the Ajuntament de Barcelona along with other top research centers.

An initiative promoted by the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona (ICUB), Ciutat-Ciència is being planned by a committee of seven reseachers, including IBEC’s group leader Nuria Monstserrat.

With a week of concentrated activity from 7th-11th February, Ciutat-Ciència will present today’s rapidly accelerating scientific advances to citizens and encourage debate and opinion.

Pere Roca-Cusachs wins City of Barcelona award

Pere Roca-Cusachs, group leader at IBEC and assistant professor at the University of Barcelona, has won the 2017 City of Barcelona Award for the life sciences.

The prize comes after the publication of his study in Cell last year, where he identified a mechanism by which tissue rigidity regulates cell survival and proliferation, as well as its implications in diseases such as cancer and liver and lung fibrosis.

The City of Barcelona Awards are granted by Barcelona City Council, and the jury – Patrick Aloy, Juan Valcárcel, Cristina Subidas, Elena Casacuberta, and Neus Agell – were unanimous in their choice of Pere for the prize.

Joining forces with FEDER to collaborate on solutions for rare diseases

IBEC has signed a collaboration agreement with the Federación Española de Enfermedades Raras (FEDER), a non-profit organization that represents the three million people suffering from rare diseases throughout the country.

Rare diseases are those that affect fewer than 5 out of every 10,000 inhabitants. According to the WHO, there are about 7,000 such diseases affecting 7% of the world’s population, so altogether they affect a huge number of people – and they can appear at any stage of life. The agreement with IBEC will connect the institute with patients’ associations to develop projects together that have a direct application according to the needs of sufferers.

Education award for IBEC’s outreach activities

IBEC has been awarded the “Segell de Qualitat Educativa” (seal of educative quality) by the Consell De Coordinació Pedagògica of Barcelona City Council’s Institute of Education, an educational network that includes 155 institutions and organizations that offer educational activities.

This recognition is of the quality of IBEC’s outreach activities that the institute carries out for school pupils, teachers, the general public, and many other audiences.