The Ramon Areces Foundation is to fund six projects in Catalonia over the next three years. Antonio Zorzano, group leader of the Complex Metabolic Diseases and Mitochondria Laboratory at IRB Barcelona at PCB, and full professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Barcelona, leads one of them, entitled “Investigating the molecular mechanisms of exosome production under cellular stress”.
The Barcelona City Council has announced the 2016 “Premi Ciutat de Barcelona” awardees, the highest recognition that the city gives to its citizens. Salvador Aznar Benitah, ICREA researcher at IRB Barcelona based at PCB, has been recognized in the Life Sciences category for the relevance of his work for metastasis research.
Researchers from the biotech company Iproteos and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine of Barcelona (IRB Barcelona), member of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) –based at the Barcelona Science Park– in collaboration with scientists from the Neuropsychopharmacology Research Group –belonging to the University of Basque Country /Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU) and to the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM)– have published an article at European Neuropsychopharmacology, where the new procognitive drug efficacy has been demonstrated for schizophrenia treatment.
Iproteos – based at the Barcelona Science Park– has closed a round of funding valued at 1.5 millon Euros, led by Caixa Capital Risc and with participation of Kinled Holding, a Hong Kong based investment company with offices in London, New York and Zurich, and the biotech ASCIL Biopharm. The company will set aside this injection of capital to the completion of the regulatory preclinical phase of his compound, a first-in-class drug for the treatment of Cognitive Impairment Associated with Schizophrenia (CIAS). The compound is one of the few that are being developed around the world to halt and reverse the cognitive impairment caused by this disease.
IRB Barcelona scientists Benjamí Oller, Macarena Sánchez, Ernest Giralt, and Meritxell Teixidó, all from the Peptides and Proteins Lab of the Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology Programme, have written a review on the emerging field of shuttle peptides—molecules that have the capacity to transport drugs across the blood-brain barrier and thus treat diseases affecting the central nervous system. The article will be featured on the cover of September’s issue of Chemical Society Reviews.
Iproteos, based at the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), has launched an equity crowdfunding campaign of 250,000 Euros through the platform Capital Cell. The funds obtained will help to complete the safety phase, or preclinical regulatory phase, of their compound IPR19, one of the few drugs that are being developed around the world to stop and reverse the cognitive deficits of schizophrenia. This is the second equity crowdfunding campaign led by Iproteos. The first round, launched in June 2014, was the first in the Spanish biotechnology sector.
The Peptides and Proteins Research Lab led by Dr. Ernest Giralt at the Institut de Recerca Biomèdica (IRB Barcelona) started three years ago to design compounds which prevented the binding between the Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) protein and its EGFR receptor. The interaction between these two proteins accelerates the metabolism of tumor cells in order for them to grow and divide faster.
The young scientist Benjamí Oller, who recently defended his PhD thesis, done in Prof. Ernest Giralt’s lab at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), has been awarded one of the five ‘Premis Pioner 2015‘ (Pioneer Prizes 2015), which are presented by the CERCA Institute –an organisation belonging to the Government of Catalonia– in order to recognize to recent doctorates that orient his research to obtain industrial or commercial results.
On the afternoon of Friday 27th November and all of the next day, fifteen secondary school teachers from around Catalonia will have the opportunity to learn about the value of chemistry for biomedicine by the hand of researchers at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona). Forming part of the programme Teachers and Science, an initiative of the Catalunya-La Pedrera Foundation, the course Chemistry: the basic ingredient of biomedical research involves the collaboration of IRB for the fifth consecutive year. The course will be held on IRB Barcelona premises at the Barcelona Science Park.
20 pioneering scientists present their latest research on the barrier and the breakthroughs in therapeutic shuttle transporters that target the brain in the ‘Blood-Brain-Barrier’ Barcelona Biomed Conference, an event organised by IRB Barcelona with the University of Tohoku (Japó) and supported by the BBVA Foundation. One of the latest results is a shuttle based on bee venom developed by Ernest Giralt’s Lab from IRB Barcelona at PCB. The conference starts today at the Institut d’Estudis Catalans in Barcelona and ends on Wednesday 4th November.
