Sylvie Bove, new CEO of EIT Health Blog Post

Sylvie Bove has been appointed as new CEO of the EIT Health, the Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) for healthy living and active aging, promoted by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). The Spanish node, EIT Health Spain, headed by the University of Barcelona (UB) with the support from Biocat, has its headquarters at Barcelona Science Park (PCB) and is composed of 50 core partners and 90 associate partners from the public and private sectors, leaders in their fields and committed to innovation in health. Bove took on the position on September 1

 

The 14th edition of the Spend the Summer at the Park! starts Blog Post

The welcome ceremony to participants of the Spend the summer at the Park! program was held today, Wednesday, July 1. The aim of this initiative –organized annually by the Barcelona Science Park (PCB)– is to bring research closer to students of any university in the world through their participation in projects currently being carried out in research groups, research centers and companies based at the PCB.

Atrian Bakers’s bread Tritordeum, made with the new cereal Agrasys, nominated to the Carrefour Innovation Awards Blog Post

A new type of bread  produced by Atrian Bakers  and made with Tritordeum,  has been nominated for the 2015 Carrefour Innovation Awards. The new type of bread will be subjected to population vote until the 21st of June. Tritordeum cereal is the first man-made cereal without genetic modification suitable for human consumption. Developed in the late 70s by a group of scientists from the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (IAS) of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC)), and after 30 years of research, Agrasys -a spin-off company based at the Barcelona Science Park, founded by researchers from the IAS and the industry, launched the new bread to the market in April 2013.

The call to take part in the 14th Edition of «Spend the Summer at the Park!» is now open Blog Post

Starting today, May 4, applications are being accepted to take part in the internship program «Spend the Summer at the Park!», aimed at students doing theirs master´s degree or in their final year of their bachelor’s degree. The aim of this initiative, organized by the Parc Cientific de Barcelona (PCB), is to bring research closer to young students from any university in the world through their participation in projects undertaken at PCB. The deadline for submitting applications is May 18.

Genetic “editing” a new tool to fight inherited disease Blog Post

Researchers at the Hospital Clínic, IDIBAPS, the Hospital Sant Joan de Deu and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) have participated in a study, led by Dr. Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte of the Gene Expression Laboratory at California’s Salk Institute, that uses molecular scissors to remove mitochondrial mutations in mouse eggs. In the study, published today in the journal Cell (doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.03.051), researchers developed a simple technique to eliminate mitochondrial mutations in eggs or embryos at an early stage of development.

Sports clubs, patients, and scientists unite against Pompe disease Blog Post

April 15 is International Pompe Day, a rare condition that affects the muscular development of the body, causing death in infants under one year of age and severe muscle weakness in children and adults. The Asociación Española de Enfermos de Glucogenosis (AEEG) has launched an awareness campaign throughout Spain entitled “Investigar salva vidas” (Research saves lives) with the aim to inform the general public about Pompe disease—also known as Glycogenosis Type II— and to co-finance a research project that will be conducted at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), based in the PCB.

iMols, the Mind the Byte cloud platform for drug discovery, is now available free of charge Blog Post

Mind the Byte –based at the Parc Científic de Barcelona and specializing in the provision of services and solutions for computational drug discovery- has opened cloud platform for use by the scientific, academic and business community. iMols is the first cloud platform specifically designed for drug discovery using the SaaS (‘Software as a Service’) approach. Mols is a SaaS platform breaks the two main barriers faced by computational drug design: implementation costs – it eliminates investments in servers and software licensing- and the training of the team, as it is an easy-to-use and intuitive tool requiring very little training.

 

Inveready enters biotech Agrasys after leading an increase of capital Blog Post

Inveready has invested 500,000 euros in the biotech Agrasys, based at the Parc Cientific de Barcelona, through its capital fund Inveready Invierte Biotech II.  With this contribution, the venture capital investment group has become owner of  a stake of the company, of which Uninvest, a management company, is also part of, after having joined the group in 2008, and which, on this occasion, has materialized its support -through its R & D  Unifondo fund-  entering the venture jointly with the development partners involved in the increase of capital.

 

Discovery of why colon cancer metastasis always follows the same invasive pattern Blog Post

A team of scientists led by Roger Gomis, ICREA researcher and head of the Growth Control and Cancer Metastasis Group at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), has identified the genes that favour staggered colon cancer metastasis. Published on Sunday in the journal Nature Cell Biology (doi:10.1038/ncb2977), in addition to Gomis, the authors include Angel R. Nebreda, ICREA and BBVA Cancer Research Professor, and Eduard Batlle, ICREA Professor and head of the Colorectal Cancer Lab, both at IRB Barcelona.