IBEC researchers show that physical forces activate genes involved in cancer Blog Post

IBEC’s researchers at PCB, led by Pere Roca-Cusachs, reveal how forces trigger the expression of certain genes by increasing the activity of a protein called YAP in the nucleus of the cell.  The results of the study, published in Cell, have shown how these forces ‘switch on’ the expression of genes that may result in cancer.

 

Catalan biomedical companies attracted €153.1 million in investment in 2016 Blog Post

Catalan biomedical companies were able to attract €153.1 million in investment in 2016, a record figure for the sector. This is the main takeaway from the first Study on investment in the Biomedical industry in Catalonia 2017: Achievements and future challenges presented by CataloniaBio, based at the Barcelona Science Park, and EY at the Cercle d’Economia before some seventy members of the association, entrepreneurs, investors and other professionals. 

 

A team of UB and PCB takes part in the licence of a new technology of fluorescent dyes of biomedical interest Blog Post

A new article published in the journal Nature Protocols describes the new technology to develop a series of activable fluorophores that enable the peptide molecular labelling and improve cell-live imaging. The new study has the participation of the teams led by Rodolfo Lavilla, from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the University of Barcelona and the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), and Marc Vendrell, from the Edinburgh Medical School (Scotland).    

 

Two studies reject the scientific dogma associating ageing with the loss of stem cell circadian rhythm Blog Post

Two studies published in Cell by scientists from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) at the Barcelona Science Park, the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and the University of California, Irvine (UCI) reject the scientific dogma associating ageing with the loss of stem cell circadian rhythm. Their results reveal that stem cell functions continue to be governed by day and night cycles (circadian rhythms) during ageing, but their rhythms become devoted to tissue repair and not to the maintenance of tissue tone.

 

Errors made by ‘DNA spellchecker’ revealed as important cause of cancer Blog Post

A study developed by Fran Supek (currently a group leader at IRB Barcelona at the Barcelona Science Park) and Ben Lehner at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona reveal that many mutations in human cancers are caused by mistakes made by a repair mechanism or ‘DNA spellchecker’ rather than the actual damage to DNA caused by the environment. High levels of alcohol, sunlight, and tobacco consumption increase the rate at which this happens, resulting in more mutations in the most important parts of our genomes.

 

IBEC group develops a nanoscale imaging method that shows electron transfer pathways Blog Post

An IBEC group at the Barcelona Science Park has developed a new imaging method that can characterize the conductance of single molecules, shedding light on the molecular mechanisms behind biological processes such as respiration, photosynthesis and repair. Publishing in the journal Small, the Nanoprobes and Nanoswitches group describe a new way to observe conduction pathways in redox proteins and complexes – in which the transfer of electrons causes a change in oxidation – at the nanoscale.