Teresa Tarragó, CEO and co-founder of the biotechnology company Iproteos based at Barcelona Science Park (PCB), is participating in Innovactoras, a social project that seeks to raise the profile of female entrepreneurs and innovators known for their work Science, Technology, Business, Education and Society, and make them role models for the next generation.
For the fifth consecutive year, the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) based in PCB has been nominated for the “Vanguardia de la Ciencia” Award, thanks to research into autism, done in collaboration with the Centre for Molecular Biology “Severo Ochoa” (CBMSO), joint center between the Superior Council of Scientific Investigations (CSIC) and the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM). The work in question established that the CPEB4 protein, which coordinates the expression of hundreds of genes necessary for neuronal activity, is altered in the brains of patients with this neurological disorder.
M. Miralpeix Pharma Consulting, specialized in providing scientific and strategic advice to companies and public and private research centres linked to life sciences and healthcare, has opened its headquarters at the Barcelona Science Park. The objective of the consultancy firm is to interact in an ecosystem that enables it to strengthen its links with the main players in the pharmaceutical and biotech sector to boost its R&D&I projects towards a more advanced phase, closer to the market.
The Barcelona Science Park is to participate in the 1st edition of the “City and Science Biennial”—organised by the Barcelona City Council, via the Culture Institute of Barcelona (ICUB) –with the aim of improving the dissemination of scientific knowledge generated in the city, and creating closer ties with society. The programme, which comprises the participation of 118 entities and the collaboration of academics, researchers, teachers and scientists, includes around 90 activities that will take place between 7 and 11 February in over 72 locations across the city’s ten districts.
Researchers from the Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG-CRG) –based in the Barcelona Science Park and integrated into the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG)– the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), and the Institute of Genomics at the University of Tartu have identified, in the genome of Asiatic individuals, the footprint of a new hominid who cross bred with its ancestors tens of thousands of years ago. The study, published in Nature Communications, uses deep learning for the first time ever to account for human evolution, paving the way for the application of this technology in other questions in biology, genomics and evolution.
Researchers from the Spanish centre Embryotools —with headquarters in the Barcelona Science Park (Parc Científic de Barcelona, PCB) — are participating in a landmark scientific event in Greece that will shape the future of assisted reproduction. In a pilot clinical trial conducted on women, which is being sponsored by the assisted reproduction centre Institute of Life in Athens, Spanish scientists have achieved the world’s first pregnancy that uses the Maternal Spindle Transfer technique to solve problems of infertility.
Researchers from the Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG-CRG) –based in the Barcelona Science Park and integrated into the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) take part in the LifeTime consortium, which aims at understanding the constant changes within cells and their relationship to disease. The initiative will receive one million euros to devise a plan how to embed its vision into the European research and innovation landscape.
IBEC’s Smart Nano-Bio-Devices group at the Barcelona Science Park have used 3D bioprinting to produce ‘biorobots’ made of biological elements such as muscle tissue. These bio-inspired soft robotic devices could offer many more capabilities for movement and performance – such as real-time bio-sensing, self-organization, adaptability, or self-healing – than existing systems, which use solely artificial materials.
This month saw the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) hosting the workshop Standing up for Science, run by European Union. This activity seeks to train and motivate scientists to get involved in public debates about science and to promote public participation in the communication of their results, adapting the language used to the audience.
The biotechnology company Iproteos and the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), based at the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), and the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) are set to develop an innovative treatment to slow down, stop and even reverse the growth of solid tumors, which represent more than 90% of cancer cases. The project, which received €935,000 from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, through of the call Retos Colaboración, will focus in its first phase on two of the most common solid tumors in children and adolescents, rhabdomyosarcoma and neuroblastoma, as well as in lung and colon cancer, which have the highest mortality rate in adults.
