From 30 June to 4 July, a summer course will be offered on the "Challenges, Advances and New Approaches in Biomedicine in the Twenty-first Century". The course, organised by the UB and the Barcelona Science Park, will be held in the Historic Building of the University of Barcelona and it is open to the general public. Its aim is to inform participants of the technological advances that have been made in the field of biomedicine in recent years, creating high expectations for the development of new treatments. The course will also offer specific examples of practical applications being pursued by biotech companies, who are driving the transfer of these advances and this knowledge into society at large.

Speakers include researchers and executives from a number of already established biotech companies, including Dirk Büscher, vice-president of research at the biopharmaceutical company Cellerix; Luís Ruiz Ávila, CEO of Advancell; Ana Isabel Jiménez Antón, director of R&D at Sylentis, part of the Zeltia Group; and Pau Bruguera, technical director of Biokit. New start-ups will also be represented, including Intelligent Pharma under the leadership of Ignasi Belda, which is part of the PCB-Santander Bioincubator at the Barcelona Science Park.

Also participating in the course will be prestigious researchers such as Bonaventura Clotet, director of the HIV Unit at the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital and with the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute; Mercedes Robledo of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO); Elena Galea of the Institute of Neuroscience at the Autonomous University of Barcelona; and Miguel Torres of the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC).

Sonia Martínez Arca, head of the PCB’s scientific department and session organiser, will open the course. She will speak on the PCB as a successful model in the management of research and innovation, looking at what the PCB’s objectives are and how it functions. All sessions will take place in the afternoon from 4 pm to 8.30 pm.

For more information: www.ub.edu/juliols/linguae