The 3rd Annual Conference of Technological Platforms for Biomedical Research held in Barcelona on 23 and 24 February brought together more than 300 researchers to explore how to address the challenges of fostering and strengthening cooperation between public and private stakeholders in the areas of nanomedicine, innovative medicines, and healthcare technology.

The bioengineer Alícia Casals, group leader of the robotics research program at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) will be recognized for her work as a research scientist in the “16 Científiques Catalanes” exhibition being organized by the Associació Catalana de Comunicació Científica.

Catalonia and the French regions of the Grand Sud-Ouest, the Auvergne, and the Rhône Alpes are well known for their cutting-edge projects in the clinical application of nanotechnology in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The clinical and technological researchers in this area have created a collaboration network, and a number of teams are working together on pluridisciplinary projects.

The control of stem cell potency is the line of research most recently incorporated into the IBEC program under the leadership of Ángel Raya, a research professor at the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA). This project, which represents an expansion of the institute's work in the field, now forms part of IBEC's Cellular Biotechnology research program.

The supply of oxygen and nutrients from capillaries as well as the mechanical stimuli transmitted to cells are critical factors that influence tissue differentiation. The effect of these two factors can be investigated using mechanobiological computational models.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office Science and Innovation Network and the Spanish Technology Platform on Nanomedicine (Nanomed Spain) have organized the UK-Iberia Nanomedicine Workshop. The meeting will be host at the British Embassy in Madrid on Dec 10th and 11th.

As part of its current strategic plan, the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) is opening a new facility to accommodate four of its fifteen research teams.

Cellular prion protein (PrPc) plays an essential role in maintaining neurotransmitter homeostasis in the central nervous system. This discovery has been made possible by the observation that both a deficiency and an excess of the protein have a considerable effect on this homeostasis. Surprisingly, in both cases, the central nervous excitability threshold is altered to such an extent that an epileptic seizure may result. Thanks to this discovery, we now have more tools at our disposal that can help us to deepen our basic understanding of epilepsy.

The 2nd China-Europe Symposium on Biomaterials in Regenerative Medicine, which will take place in Barcelona from 16 to 20 November, brings together over 150 participants and the top specialists in biomaterials from these two geographical areas.

In a process essential to the immune system’s response to infection, dendritic cells responsible for identifying pathogens communicate with the T-cells that destroy the infectious agents. To achieve this, the dendritic cells must be correctly activated and migrate to the lymph nodes where they must adhere firmly to T-cells.