Last week, IBEC welcomed a group of third year E.S.O. students from the Oak House School in Barcelona, who were taking part in the ESCOLAB initiative of the City Council of Barcelona.

The two IBEC-led CIBER-BBN tissue regeneration projects that were earmarked for funding by the EU's ERA-NET EuroNanoMed initiative last year (see http://www.ibecbarcelona.eu/IBEC-News/funding-success-for-two-ibec-projects.html) have both received the national support they need to get started.

IBEC director Josep Planell’s research group has changed its name and is now known as the Biomaterials for Regenerative Therapies group.

Wednesday last week saw the biannual meeting at the institute of the steering committee of the Spanish NanoMedicine Platform (NanoMed Spain), which is coordinated by IBEC.

The Barcelona Science Park (PCB), where IBEC is located, has just launched a new multimedia platform to publicize the activities of the 75 companies and three research institutes working there.

Much like a kindergarten full of unruly toddlers, the cells that contribute to the body’s crucial processes can’t always be trusted to do what you want or expect them to do. Now IBEC researchers have made an important breakthrough that could contribute to the development of therapies for spinal and neural diseases:  they’ve figured out exactly what it is that makes certain cells misbehave in particular circumstances.

A new spin-off company created by IBEC and the UPC will focus on the manufacture and marketing of surgical systems.

Two IBEC-led tissue regeneration projects have been selected for funding by the EU's ERA-NET EuroNanoMed initiative.

An arts and science initiative involving IBEC and Barcelona’s Arts Santa Mònica centre, which took place earlier this year, has been awarded the Antoni Caparros Prize for Best Knowledge Transfer from the University of Barcelona.

The 55 researchers who received funding from fundraising programme La Marató de TV3 2010, including IBEC's Pau Gorostiza, attended a ceremony at the UAB last Wednesday where the grants were awarded in the presence of Minister of Health Boi Ruiz, Rector of the UAB Ana Ripoll, and La Marató de TV3 founder Enrique Marin.