DONATE

Photopharmacology

IBEC secures competitive funding to drive forward validation testing for three innovative health projects

IBEC has been awarded three grants in response to the call for proposals from the Strategic Plan for Health Research and Innovation (PERIS). These projects aim to validate hyperspectral technology for improving assisted reproduction, using bioprinted cell spheroids to combat type 1 diabetes and developing light-activated drugs to restore vision in patients with retinal degeneration.

Light-activated drugs against neuropathic pain

A team of researchers led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) has developed light-activated derivatives of the anti-epileptic drug carbamazepine to treat neuropathic pain. These compounds, which show analgesic effects when activated by light, can inhibit nerve signals locally and on demand. Photopharmacological treatments offer precise action at the site of application, thus reducing systemic side effects.

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.