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Xavier Trepat

Group leader

IBEC launches the exhibition ‘Open Dialogues’ with three co-creation projects at the intersection of art and science

On 13 May, the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia opened an exhibition featuring three collaborative works created through the first edition of “Open Dialogues”, a programme that brings together artists and IBEC researchers. Addressing issues such as gender bias in healthcare, the sensory translation of cellular processes and the parallels between artistic and scientific practices based on the olfactory experience, the pieces were created through a dialogue between art and science.

TN – TELEMADRID: Pioneros en programar tejidos vivos

Un equipo internacional liderado por investigadores del Instituto de Bioingeniería de Cataluña ha conseguido algo que hasta ahora solo se había imaginado en la ciencia ficción, crear tejidos vivos que son capaces de cambiar de manera programada. La clave está en controlar la orientación de las células. Declaraciones de Xavier Trepat, Investigador del Instituto de Bioingeniería Cataluña; Pau Guillamat, investigador Instituto de Bioingenieria de Cataluña.

How cells decide when to react could shape future treatments for cancer and fibrosis

Scientists from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and King’s College London have discovered that cells do not just sense mechanical forces but also measure how long those forces last before responding. The findings, published in Nature Materials, reveal a timing mechanism that allows cells to ignore brief mechanical noise while reacting to sustained changes, a process that is crucial in diseases such as cancer and fibrosis.

IBEC makes its mark at TERMISEU 2026 with a strong scientific presence and a key role in the conference’s leadership

From 21 to 24 April 2026, IBEC had a significant presence at TERMISEU 2026, the leading European conference on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Held at the Palma Conference Centre in Mallorca, the event brought together more than 1,600 researchers.

Scientists create living tissues capable of changing shape in a programmed manner

Researchers at the Institute for Bioengineering for Catalonia (IBEC), the Polytechnic University of Catalonia – BarcelonaTech (UPC) and the International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE) have developed a new strategy for ‘programming’ the shape of biological tissues in vitro. The study, published in the journal Science, is the first to demonstrate that it is possible to guide the forces and final shape of living tissue by controlling the orientation of its cells. The research opens the door to new applications in tissue engineering, biohybrid robotics, and the design of smart living materials.

Barcelona hosts the fourth edition of the EMBL-IBEC Conference

The fourth EMBL-IBEC Conference, organised by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), focused on disease modelling, developmental biology, and regenerative medicine. The event brought around 130 international bioengineering experts together at the PRBB in Barcelona this week.

IBEC successfully holds Hackathon for its new co-creation programme, ‘Open Dialogues’

Yesterday, the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) brought together around twenty artists and scientists for a co-creation hackathon as part of its new ‘Open Dialogues’ initiative. Following the event, two pairs of artists and scientists were selected to collaborate on developing two projects based on IBEC research over the next five months.