Researchers froms IBEC and UB have collaborated in the definition of a new kind of indicators for bacterial virulence Blog Post

Researchers and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the University of Barcelona (UB) together with their collaborators from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene (University of Lübeck) and German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) have determined a new kind of indicators for bacterial virulence which can help detect and preventing infection outbreaks caused by Escherichia coli.

 

Intelligent Pharma wins the award CaràcterEmpresa to Innovation in Catalonia Blog Post

Intelligent Pharma, a company based at the Barcelona Science Park  (PCB), has won the Premi CaràcterEmpresa award in the category of Innovation among 14 companies from around Catalonia and has been selected to take part in the nation-wide final phase, that will take place this coming June. The CaràcterEmpresa awards are promoted by CaixaBank and by the Spanish Confederatiion of Business Organizations (CEOE) in the Catalan edition, also promoted by Foment del Treball, the institution representing the interests of Catalan industry and business.

Esteve and the Barcelona Science Park strengthen their collaboration for the discovery of new analgesic agents Blog Post

Esteve and the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) have decided to strengthen their collaboration in the field of Discovery of new molecular compounds with analgesic properties through the creation of the ESTEVE-PCB Joint Research Unit. This Unit based at the PCB, at the University of Barcelona campus, is intended to potentiate synergies in the field of chronic pain, a medical need that is not yet fully covered by currently available therapies.     

 

Mind the Byte launches six new software to accelerate drug discovery Blog Post

In line with the ground-breaking pay-per-use philosophy, Mind the Byte has launched six new programs for computational drug design on their SaaS platform (Software as a Service), which the company has been marketing since 2011. The new software expands the services currently on offer and helps cut drug-development time and costs up to 30% for companies and researchers. The products were launched at prices that adapt to the needs of each user.

 

Cebiotex opens a second crowdfunding round for the development of nanofiber tissues against cancer Blog Post

After having succesfully closed a first crowfunding round of 300,000 euros in just 11 days, Cebiotex, a spin-off of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and the Sant Joan de Déu-Barcelona Children’s Hospital, located at the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), has launched a second round of  300,000 euros, managed, once more, by European biotech crowdfunding platform CapitalCell. The company will allocate the resources obtained to expedite the development of an innovative system to administer antitumor drugs – a biodegradable nanofiber tissue for the local treatment of cancer- while ensuring that these new drugs are made available not only for adult patients but also for pediatric oncological patients 

 

Discovery of a fundamental limit to the evolution of the genetic code Blog Post

Headed by ICREA researcher Lluís Ribas de Pouplana at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and in collaboration with Fyodor A. Kondrashov, at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and Modesto Orozco, from IRB Barcelona, the team of scientists has demonstrated that the genetic code evolved to include a maximum of 20 amino acids and that it was unable to grow further because of a functional limitation of transfer RNAs—the molecules that serve as interpreters between the language of genes and that of proteins. This halt in the increase in the complexity of life happened more than 3,000 million years ago, before the separate evolution of bacteria, eukaryotes and archaebacteria, as all organisms use the same code to produce proteins from genetic information.

 

Eugin grows its business to 14,000 treatments per year Blog Post

Eugin Clinic performed 13,885 assisted reproduction treatments in 2015, which places it as one of the European leaders in the sector. The international centre, which has its basic research laboratory at the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), performs 10% of the treatments by means of egg donation from all over Europe and their success rates, which are verified by the prestigious German certification agency, TÜV, confirm that 9 in10 women achieve pregnancy. Eugin is also undertaking a large number of scientific projects with leading research centres and six European universities, including the University of Barcelona (UB).

 

A bridge towards new business opportunities in Korea Blog Post

Pharmaphenix –based at the Barcelona Science Park specializing in business development in emergent markets in Latin American and Korea with increasing activity in the Spanish market– has taken part one more year at BIO Korea, the largest partnering conference of the biotech, pharmaceutical and innovation sector in Asia. For three days, the pharmaceutical consultancy firm- with headquarters in Barcelona and in Seoul, South Korea– has intensified its contacts with key actors of the national bio-health sector to consolidate itself as a benchmark partner in the region. 

 

How tissue stiffness activates cancer Blog Post

Researchers at IBEC and their collaborators at the Georgia Institute of Technology  (Georgia Tech), publishing today in Nature Cell Biology, have identified the mechanism by which tissue stiffness activates a protein called YAP, a major oncogene. The new knowledge could potentially lead to new strategies to impair or even halt the growth of tumours.