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Preventing the tissue’s response to stiffness may be key to slowing the progression of breast tumors

A study led by the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia demonstrates that laminin, a protein present in breast tissues, prevents the effects of stiffening, protecting cells against tumor growth. While the mechanism has been demonstrated in vitro, persuasive indications suggest its potential applicability in vivo, as observed in patient samples.

EMBL-IBEC Conference in the media

The EMBL-IBEC Conference, a three-day conference organized by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), is featured in the journal ARA where international experts discussed how to reproduce human diseases in living systems generated in the laboratory.

Researcher Xavier Trepat wins the “Constantes y Vitales” award for his pioneering contributions to the mechanobiology field

The ICREA Research Professor at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), Xavier Trepat, has been awarded with the “Constantes y Vitales” Award for Talent in Biomedical Research, awarded by the Atresmedia group, for his contributions to the field known as mechanobiology, that studies the effect of physical forces on living systems and their implication in pathologies such as cancer.

The intestinal organoids hit the media

The group led by Xavier Trepat at IBEC, together with Marino Arroyo, associate researcher at IBEC, and other international collaborators have developed intestinal organoids and measured cellular forces in order to decipher how the inner wall of this vital organ folds and moves.

Mechanical forces, half of the alphabet to understand life

Xavier Trepat and international experts remind us in a piece published in the Journal Nature by science writer Amber Dance, the crucial role of physics in order to understand biological entities such cells and organs, both in health and disease. In words of Trepat: “Understanding a cell without physics is like trying to write a book with only half the letters of the alphabet”.