Albert Barberà, new CEO of Biocat Blog Post

The Biocat Board of Trustees, presided over by Catalan Minister of Health Boi Ruiz, has appointed Dr. Albert Barberà the new CEO of the organization with headquarters at Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB). Barberà, who until now has served as director of the Girona Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBGi), will take over in January for Dra. Montserrat Vendrell, who was CEO of Biocat from 2007 through September of this year when she took the reigns of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), which is also located at PCB.

 

Cells are liquids, but behave like solids Blog Post

Scientists at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) at PCB have revealed that, counter to previous understanding, the living cells in our bodies behave like solids rather than the liquids they are made of. The finding changes the way we think about processes such as embryo development or wound healing. 

 

Doing your PhD at IBEC! Blog Post

The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) at PCB is looking for PhD candidates to apply for the International PhD Programme at IBEC from ”la Caixa”– Severo Ochoa fellowships, and ‘Ayudas para contratos predoctorales para la formación de doctores 2016’ fellowships funded by Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Mineco). Students selected will have the opportunity to start your research career in a stimulating, interdisciplinary and high quality international scientific environment.

 

Scientists in Barcelona discover a potential treatment for cirrhosis Blog Post

Scientists from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) at PCB and the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) reveals a therapeutic target to prevent the development of the many abnormal blood vessels that cause gastrointestinal bleeding—the main complication in cirrhosis. The results of the study have been published in the most recent issue of Cirrhosis is the main risk factor for liver cancer. The same target may be the key to preventing and treating this condition.

 

Knowledge transfer in psoriasis, recognized with the Antoni Caparrós Award Blog Post

The Knowledge Transfer program in psoriasis between the academia and the industry developed by the Translational Immunology Group of the Department of Physiology and Immunology at the University of Barcelona (UB)- based at the Barcelona Science Park (PCB)– has been recognized with the Antoni Caparrós Award, one of the five awards that the UB Board of Trustees and the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation (FBG) granted this last Wednesday. 

 

Secondary school teachers learn about biomedical chemistry at IRB Barcelona Blog Post

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.

 

IRB Barcelona develops an advanced method and the first platform of DNA simulations Blog Post

The Molecular Modelling and Bioinformatics Laboratory at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), headed by Modesto Orozco, has published today in Nature Methods a new model which allows atomic-level simulations of DNA dynamics, with unprecedented accuracy. All the simulations and posterior analyses are kept in the first online tool developed to date dedicated to atomic level simulations of nucleic acids. The platform is free of charge and available to the entire scientific community through the Spanish Institute of Bioinformatics and the European network ELIXIR-Excellerate.

 

New computational approach to predicting adverse drug reactions with higher confidence Blog Post

A new integrated computational method helps predicting adverse drug reaction—which are often lethal—more reliably than with traditional computing methods. This improved ability to foresee the possible adverse effects of drugs may entail saving many lives in the future. The study that is being conducted by researchers from IMIM (Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute), Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), and the company Chemotargets at PCB, within the framework of the European eTOX project, was chosen for the cover of the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.

 

Renewal of IRB Barcelona’s ‘Severo Ochoa’ Accreditation of Excellence Blog Post

This morning the Secretary of State for I+D+I has announced that the first eight ‘Severo Ochoa’ Centres of Excellence‘ ─whose strategic research plans for the period 2016-2019 have been positively evaluated─ have been awarded this distinction again, which has won them  a grant of 1 million euros a year for a further four years. One of these centers is the Institute for Biomedical Research (IRB Barcelona), which received the news during its 10th year anniversary institutional event at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB). Last March, the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) was granted the Severo Ochoa accreditation, which means that Barcelona Science Park (PCB) now is home to two of the centers that have been presented with this distinction.