A study led by the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) describes the development of an organ-on-a-chip that mimics the human blood-brain barrier. With this system, researchers can study the barrier permeability to different drugs and screen the most effective ones, avoiding animal tests. The device could also incorporate cells from patients to make a personalized study of the disease.
Coinciding with World Diabetes Day, researchers from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) reveal a study that combines muscle and pancreatic cells on a single chip and demonstrates that … Read more
Javier Ramón, Group Leader of the “Biosensors for Bioengineering” group at IBEC, has been appointed new Research Professor at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, ICREA. Currently IBEC hosts 8 ICREA Professors out of 22 group leaders.Since last April 1, Dr. Javier Ramón, Group Leader at IBEC, has become part of the ICREA Research Professors community. ICREA is a foundation funded by the Catalan Government aimed at recruiting the most extraordinary and talented international scientific researchers. With this appointment, IBEC hosts 8 ICREA Professors and 2 ICREA Academia (UB affiliated professors), one of the highest numbers among all research centres in Catalonia.
A group of researchers from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) leads the European project BLOC, an initiative led by researchers Javier Ramón and Irene Marco that seeks to evaluate the response to different drugs in metabolic diseases using organ-in-a- chip by using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). For this, the consortium will have a budget of almost 3 million euros, financed by the Horizon 2020 FET Open program.
IBEC’s Dr. Javier Ramón is one of just six researchers in Catalonia to have been awarded a 2016 Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC).The senior researcher in the Biomimetic Systems for Cell Engineering group won funding for his project ‘Diabetes Approach by Multi-Organ-on-a-Chip’ (DAMOC) from Europe’s most prestigious funding body.
With the support, which will last for up to five years, Javier will start a new line to design a innovative new tool to test drugs for diabetes. As well as improving drug testing approaches, the multi-organ-on-a-chip device will provide new therapies to prevent the loss of beta cell mass and defects in the glucose uptake in skeletal muscle associated with type 2 diabetes.
“This project will give me the opportunity to have a multidisciplinary group of researchers working together from the beginning in a synchronized way, the most rewarding experience that a researcher can have,” he says.