IBEC celebrates 10 years of excellent interdisciplinary research Blog Post

2017 sees the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) celebrate its first ten years of research activity. lt’s been a hair-raisingly fast climb up to the near top of the tree of centres in the Catalan research arena, with IBEC already holding its own alongside bigger and more established organizations for scientific output, number of ERC grants, patents, spin-offs, training programmes, national or EU-level stamps and endorsements, and other important indicators. Yesterday, the 10th Anniversary Commemorative Ceremony and this week’s Symposium on Bioengineering for Future Medicine at the AXA Auditorium kicked off the celebrations.

 

A cellular model to study the relation between neurodegenerative diseases is designed Blog Post

Thanks to the cells of a patient with a rare neurodegenerative disease -the Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome (GSS)- researchers from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), at the Barcelona Science Park, and the Institute of Neurosciences of the UB have created neurons showing other neurodegenerative processes which so far had not been related to this minority disease. This scientific finding could open new doors to the study of neurodegenerative pathologies with diagnoses similar to Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s according to the study published in the journal Molecular Neurobiology.

 

Minoryx successfully completes phase 1 clinical trial for lead candidate MIN-102 Blog Post

Minoryx Therapeutics – a drug development company specialized in the discovery and development of new drugs for orphan diseases, which has R& D laboratories at the Barcelona Science Park– announces that it has successfully completed its phase 1 trial with its lead compound MIN-102 targeting X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD), a life threatening orphan CNS disease with high unmet medical need.

 

Researchers find a new key target for the treatment of prostate cancer Blog Post

A team led by researchers of the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona (IBUB) –at the Barcelona Science Park– and the Research Institute of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (IIB-Sant Pau) shows for the first time, the three-dimensional structure of the homodimeric androgen receptor ligand-binding domain, a structure that eluded researchers for years. This new structure of the nuclear receptor allows explaining more than forty mutations related to prostate cancer, one of the most common worldwide and especially in Catalonia, as well as known developing disorders.

 

Sequentia launches AIR, a platform revolutionizing transcriptomics Blog Post

Sequentia Biotech, based at the Barcelona Science Park, has launched a cloud computing platform called A.I.R. (Artificial Intelligence RNAseq), the first predictive bioinformatics tool that automatically analyzes mass transcriptomic data (ie data linked to the RNA) from the genome of any species, generated by the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies, providing a complete report in less than 24 hours. 

 

Tumour cells are dependent on fat to start metastasis Blog Post

A study headed by Salvador Aznar Benitah, ICREA researcher at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) in the Barcelona Science Park, and published today in Nature, identifies metastasis-initiating cells through a specific marker, namely the protein CD36. Their results show that the protein CD36, which absorbs fat from the cell membrane, is an essential factor that determines whether tumour cells become metastatic. IRB Barcelona will co-develop antibodies against CD36 with the potential to treat patients.

 

Upcoming Forum of the BioRegion, the summit of the Catalan healthcare and life sciences ecosystem Blog Post

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Biocat is holding a new edition of the Forum of the BioRegion of Catalonia on 25 November at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya in order to bring together the stakeholders in the Catalan healthcare and life sciences ecosystem and reflect on the challenges and opportunities available in this current environment of change and sectorial transformation. The latest session brought together more than 450 representatives from Catalan organizations and this year Biocat –with headquarters at the Barcelona Scientific Park – is opening the event up to international clusters.

 

Omega-3 fatty acids stimulate brown adipose tissue metabolism Blog Post

Omega-3 fatty acids are able to stimulate the activation of brown and beige adipose tissues, a discovery that would promote the development of new therapies for obesity and other metabolism diseases, according to a research study published in the journal Nature Communications under the supervision of Professor Francesc Villarroya, from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine and member of the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona (IBUB) –located at PCB– and the Biomedical Research Center Red-Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBEROBN) of the Institute of Health Carlos III.

 

Understanding epigenetic changes: one more step towards precision medicine Blog Post

Researchers at the Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG-CRG), based at the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), participate in a series of articles simultaneously published by scientists from across the International Human Epigenome Consortium (IHEC) in prestigious scientific journals. The collection of publications showcases the achievements and scientific progress made by IHEC in core areas of current epigenetic investigations.