Esteve picks up Company of the Year Award Blog Post

Esteve has won the Company of the Year Award 2017 which is sponsored by Grupo Zeta and Banc Sabadell and recognises contributions to creating wellbeing and progress. The pharmaceutical chemical group, which has its Drug Discovery and Preclinical Development Units at the Barcelona Science Park, is a leader in the international pharmaceutical industry due to its continuous innovation in the traditional R&D model and unswerving commitment to promoting excellence in research ecosystems. Albert Esteve, the company’s Chairman, is to collect the award today at Casa Llotja de Mar in Barcelona at a ceremony attended by a wide range of political, social and industry figures.

 

Closing in on advanced prostate cancer Blog Post

A team headed by Xavier Salvatella, ICREA researcher from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) at the Barcelona Science Park, has discovered a new avenue through which to attack prostrate cancer cells that have developed drug-resistance. Published in the journal Structure, part of the Cell group, the study has involved Angel R. Nebreda’s lab and the Experimental Bioinformatics Lab, both at IRB Barcelona, and also the University of Barcelona.  

 

Embryotools successfully concludes the first trials on an innovative assisted reproduction technique Blog Post

Embryotools —headquartered at Barcelona Science Park (PCB)— has successfully concluded tests on animal models to validate an innovative assisted reproduction technique known as Maternal Spindle Transfer (MST).  This new technique is a mitochondrial replacement therapy which groups of leading scientists from around the world are studying for the prevention of mitochondrial diseases, which are transmitted maternally and currently have no treatment. Embryotools has been working on this project for over three years in partnership with the PCB-PRBB Animal Facility Alliance and the company Reprogenetics UK, located at Oxford University.

 

A pioneer project to promote organ donation in the European Union and neighbouring countries Blog Post

Raising awareness among society and promoting the training around highly specialized experts in the 28 member countries of the European Union and its neighbouring countries in the community area, aiming to improve the rate of organ donations are the main reference points for EUDONORGAN. This European project is led by the University of Barcelona (UB), together with Bosch i Gimpera Foundation (FBG) and the DTI Donation & Transplantation Institute, located at the Barcelona Science Park.

 

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.

 

Researchers describe a new brain signalling pathway that regulates body weight Blog Post

An article published in the journal Cell Metabolism –which counts with the participation of the researchers Francesc Villarroya and Joan Villarroya, from the Faculty of Biology and the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona (IBUB) at PCB– describes for the first timethe molecular mechanism that regulates the lipid metabolism in the liver through a hypothalamus-coordinated pathway in the brain. Study results open new horizons to the therapy design to treat obesity and other metabolic diseases.