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Ángel Raya is the new director of the Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona

By 16 de January de 2014November 18th, 2020No Comments
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Ángel Royo: Photo: IBEC.
 16.01.2014

Ángel Raya is the new director of the Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona

Ángel Raya, ICREA professor and head of IBEC's Control of Stem Cell Potency group, is to take up the role of director of the Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona (CMRB). With the resignation of director Prof. Juan Carlos Izpisua from the nine-year-old centre, Ángel will combine his new executive role there with his ongoing research activities at IBEC.


“The continuation of Ángel’s research line at IBEC, linked to the biomaterials and cell engineering activities, while he takes up his directorate duties at CMRB offers stability to the Catalan and Spanish research system, and will allow the consolidation of the research programme in regenerative medicine that it has been developing in recent years in different research centres,” says Josep Samitier, Director of IBEC.

The focus of Ángel’s research gropu is the regeneration of complex structures, the biotechnology of cell reprogramming, and stem cell differentiation. The new team uses the paradigm of heart (re)generation to address the basic question of how a discrete and defined degree of developmental potency can be imposed on somatic cells, enabling them to regain the capacity to regenerate a functional structure or tissue.

The CMRB was created on 15 July 2004. The basic task of this centre is to carry out research with human embryonic stem cells and different animal models in order to understand the basic mechanisms of initial development and organogenesis and the application of the cell lines derived from stem cells to diseases (regenerative medicine)in which there is a loss of cells (degenerative diseases).

CMRB scientists have made important contributions in the field of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) – which are just as versatile as embryonic cells but which can be obtained from adult cells such as stomach, liver or skin cells – and only a few months ago created human kidney cells from iPS cells. This breakthrough was heralded by the journal Science as one of the top ten scientific achievements of 2013.

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