Omega-3 fatty acids stimulate brown adipose tissue metabolism Blog Post

Omega-3 fatty acids are able to stimulate the activation of brown and beige adipose tissues, a discovery that would promote the development of new therapies for obesity and other metabolism diseases, according to a research study published in the journal Nature Communications under the supervision of Professor Francesc Villarroya, from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biomedicine and member of the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona (IBUB) –located at PCB– and the Biomedical Research Center Red-Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBEROBN) of the Institute of Health Carlos III.

 

Drug repurposing, a new hope for rare diseases Blog Post

Under the theme Drug repurposing for rare diseases. The cure of the 21st centuryB·Debate – an initiative by Biocat and  “la Caixa” Foundation– will be holding, in association with the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu (HSJD), an international expert gathering at CosmoCaixa on 17 and 18 November to help identify new therapeutic strategies for rare diseases, with a special emphasis on drug repurposing already approved for other diseases. 

 

“La Marató” awards funding to two IRB Barcelona projects on obesity and diabetes Blog Post

Today the “Fundació La Marató de TV3” has announced the 34 winning projects out of 117 presented for funding in the 2015 campaign devoted to obesity and diabetes in an award presentation ceremony held at the Acadèmia de Ciències Mèdiques i de la Salut de Catalunya i de Balears, in Barcelona. The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), based at the Barcelona Science Park, has received funding for the two projects that it presented.

 

Molecules activated by light to control glutamate receptors Blog Post

Researchers at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) based at PCB, the Institute of Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC-CSIC) and the Institute of Functional Genomics of Lyon (IGFL) have developed molecules that can modulate the activity of glutamate receptors in the central nervous system, with important applications in biomedicine.

 

IBEC’s first EMBO Young Investigator Blog Post

IBEC junior group leader at PCB and UB assistant professor Pere Roca-Cusachs has been accepted into the prestigious EMBO Young Investigator Programme. EMBO, the European Molecular Biology Organization, chooses some of the best young group leaders in Europe through a highly competitive annual selection. Pere presented his research plan for the next five years to an international panel in Heidelberg at the beginning of October.

 

The United States brings together five labs worldwide to study a fatal form of epilepsy Blog Post

Scientists from the US, Canada and Spain, among them Joan Guinovart from IRB Barcelona, are poised to perform joint research with the aim to find a treatment for Lafora disease, the most severe type of epilepsy in humans. Joan J. Guinovart’s lab at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) –based at the Barcelona Science Park–  forms part of this recently launched international alliance. The National Health Institutes has awarded the consortium $8.5 over five years. The US organisation Chelsea’s Hope, a charity formed by families affected by this disease, has promoted this international collaboration.

 

IBEC, ISGlobal and Bioiberica join forces to study new strategies based on nanomedicine to combat malaria Blog Post

The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and the biotech firm Bioiberica have signed a partnership agreement to study the development of new compounds derived from heparin to combat malaria. The partnership, which was officially announced this morning at the international Biospain meeting held in Bilbao.

 

Ferrer, IBEC and Mind the Byte join forces to study new molecules against cancer metastasis Blog Post

The pharmaceutical company Ferrer has created a consortium with the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the bioinformatics company Mind the Byte, located at the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), to study the development of new therapeutic molecules against cancer metastasis. The work will follow the research on cadherin interaction and its role in cells that cause metastasis conducted by Dr. Xavier Trepat, ICREA professor at IBEC and one of the few scientists to have won three grants from the European Research Council (ERC).  

 

New strategy to obtain a specific type of amyloid-beta aggregate that may underlie neuronal death in Alzheimer’s disease Blog Post

Scientists from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) at Barcelona Science Park (PCB), in collaboration with researchers at Scientific and Technological Centers of the University of Barcelona (CCiTUB), the University of Leuven (Belgium) and the University of Groningen (the Netherlands), and the the, describes for the first time how to prepare a specific type of aggregate of the amyloid-beta protein with the ability to perforate the cell membrane. Interpreted in the context of Alzheimer´s disease, this discovery suggests that the aggregate can also perforate the membrane of neurons, alter the equilibrium of these cells, and trigger their death.