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The PCB awards the BATX2LAB prizes to the best research projects

By 15 de March de 2018No Comments
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Ignasi Belda, Director of the Barcelona Science Park, during the prize giving ceremony (Photo: PCB). The event, which was held in the PCB’s Dolors Aleu Room, was attended by over 140 people. (Photo: PCB).
 15.03.2018

The PCB awards the BATX2LAB prizes to the best research projects

On Wednesday 14 March, prizes were awarded to the best research work from the BATX2LAB project, which was promoted by the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) as part of its Research in Society programme. The event, which was held in the Dolors Aleu Room in the PCB, was attended by over 140 people. 

 

The event was attended by Ignasi Belda, Director of the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), Muriel Arimon, head of Citizen Participation and Scientific Education of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona); Josep M. Fernández, Biology Lecturer at the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and BATX2LAB collaborator, accompanied with the students and tutors who entered this year’s awards. 

During the event, the attendees were also able to enjoy a scientific talk entitled “Biofilm: the bacterial army”. This was delivered by the chemist and scientific speaker Oriol Marimon, member of the Big Van: science on wheels group, which combines humour and science by interacting with the audience.

BATX2LAB forms part of the Barcelona Science Park’s scientific awareness programme Research in Society, which offers upper secondary school students the opportunity to conduct the practical part of their research project in several PCB laboratories under the tutelage of a researcher. The initiative–which is supported by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) and Barcelona City Council’s Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness—is capped off each year with an award ceremony that celebrates the best projects from thousands of entries, which will also be present at a stand in the PCB’s Live Research Fair, to be held this year at CosmoCaixa Barcelona from 11 to 14 April.

This year, 59 students were selected to participate in BATX2LAB from a total of 126 entries. The winning students were:

• Samira Boumedian from the Institut Joaquim Rubió i Ors, for the project entitled “Chemical photo-commutators: azobenzenes”. PCB tutor: Andrea García. Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) tutor: Davia Prishich.

• Oriol Berlinches Planas from the Institut Vilatzara, for the project entitled “Microbial growth: Mitofusin-2 and cell division”. PCB tutors: Carme Julià and Jaume Serra. Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) tutor: Jordi Coste.

• Maria Navarro Osúa from the Col·legi Josep Tous, for the project entitled “CRISPR: What does the future hold?” PCB tutor: Dolors Masip. Molecular Biology Institute of Barcelona – Spanish National Research Council (IBMB-CSIC) tutor: Aleix Tarrés.

Crazy about Biomedicine

Certificates of participation were also handed out during the event, in addition to the prize for the best research project carried out as part of the Crazy about Biomedicine programme, which was organised by the IRB Barcelona in collaboration with the Catalunya–La Pedrera Foundation and the support of the PCB.

The winning student was Víctor Torrecillas Mayayo from the Centre d’Estudis Montseny-Poblenou de Barcelona, for the project entitled “FIGHTING AGAINST CANCER FROM THE LAB – Chemotherapeutic tests in liver cancer cell lines to study TP53INP2’s role in cancer treatment” (PCB tutor: Pilar Caldú – IRB Barcelona tutor: Saska Ivanova).

“Crazy about Biomedicine” is a one-year course aimed at upper secondary school students in their first year of batxillerat studies who wish to participate in some of the fascinating projects currently being carried out in the field of biomedicine. Each year, 24 students are selected from more than 200 applications to have the opportunity to gain first-hand experience in cutting-edge biomedical research, working side-by-side with 12 researchers of various nationalities in the laboratories of IRB Barcelona.