Around a thousand secondary-school students from 30 Catalan schools enjoyed the scientific monologue sessions held at the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) this week as part of the “Cuestión de ciencia” initiative, with which Bayer, in partnership with Big Van Ciencia and Barcelona Science Park, aim to make science accessible to young people, and to inspire them regarding their future.
Coinciding with World Cancer Research day, which is held on 24 September each year, the Spanish Association Against Cancer (Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer, AECC) has announced the projects and scientists who have been awarded funding for the coming years, among them threw researchers at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), based in PCB.
Rob Surgical, a spin-off created by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), based in the PCB, and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) in 2012, has closed a €5 million investment round with the Dutch holding Scranton Enterprises to fund the final phase of the new Bitrack System –an alternative to the current laparoscopy surgical robot Da Vinci– and launch the product onto the market.
More than 130 students from five educational institutions attended the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) today to take part in the Matí de la Recerca, an initiative developed as part of the European Researchers’ Night in Catalonia (EuNightCat). The latter has grown since the previous edition, running a series of activities on 27 and 28 September. The European Commission promotes the European Researchers’ Night project within the Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, seeking to bring science and technology closer to the general public, break stereotypes about researchers and encourage young people to pursue a career in research. Around 300 European cities celebrate the European Researchers’ Night on the last Friday of September.
26 September saw the 2nd edition of the Asebio Investor Day, which was organised by Asebio with the collaboration of Barcelona Science Park (PCB), the Biotechnology Markets Platform) ICEX Spain Trade and Investment and the Alternative Spanish Equity Market. Droplite, Molomics, Ona Therapeutics and SOM Biotech, all based at PCB, were among 50 companies selected to present their projects at the financing forum, in which 57 investors from 10 countries around the world participated.
An international team led by researchers of the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) in conjunction with Tyler Alioto of the Centre Nacional d’Anàlisi Genòmica (CNAG-CRG) –based in PCB and part of the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG)– has sequenced the genome of the almond tree and compared it to that of its closest relative, the peach tree. The results provide some unique insights into the recent evolution of both species and will be key tools in their genetic improvement, including the eradication of bitter almonds, fruit quality and adaptation to climate change.
On 16 September, ”la Caixa” Banking Foundation presented the 79 grants for national and international research and innovation projects of excellence. Among the beneficiaries of funding from ”la Caixa” are researchers Eduard Batlle, Raúl Méndez, Meritxell Teixidó and Enrique Marcos, from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), and José Antonio del Río, Pau Gorostiza and Samuel Sánchez, from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC).
Once again the ‘Research in Society’ programme run by the Barcelona Science Park will have the financial backing of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundación Española para la Ciencia y Tecnología) and Barcelona City Council in the shape of grants coming to €25,000 and €14,000 respectively. This funding from the two institutions will help secure the development of the PCB’s science popularisation activities and also recognises its firm commitment to driving measures that add to the social dimension of science.
Scientists from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), at the Barcelona Science Park, and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) have combined cryomicroscopy and crystallography techniques to study the bacteriophage T7. The study, published in Nature Communications, reveals the opening and closing mechanism of the portal protein during the maturation of the viral capsid, the structure that carries the genetic material of the virus. Deciphering how work the Bacteriophages –viruses that infect bacteria– helps us to understand how others pathogenic affect us and, at the same time, they are a new focus of attention for researchers given their potential as an alternative to antibiotics.
A team of scientists from the University of Girona (UdG) has shown the effect of an Esteve drug to prevent the development of the pathological pain resulting from a spinal cord injury. The study is of great importance because there are currently no medicines that are really effective against this pathological pain caused by spinal cord injury. With this research, the pharmaceutical group, which has its Drug Discovery and Preclinical Development Units at the Barcelona Science Park, is again committed to collaborative innovation to provide solutions to medical needs not covered in diseases of high social impact.
