Category Archives: Other news

IBEC organises the fifth reSearch4Talent open doors edition

May 22, 2019

More than fifty undergraduate and master students attended yesterday’s reSearch4Talent at IBEC, the fifth time we’ve opened our doors to young scholars interested in a scientific career.

Held in the Dolors Aleu room of the Barcelona Science Park, the event started with a welcome and presentation about the institute from IBEC’s talent and education deputy and Group Leader Elena Martínez, followed by specific information about applications and admissions from Carolina Marí Head of the HR department. To finish with the presentations, Harishankar Balakrishnan PhD at IBEC, shared his experience as doctoral student and did a brief presentation of the PhD Committee, which was set up in 2013 to enable students to have a voice in the running of the institute and to organize events of their own.

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ERC President visits IBEC

May 22, 2019

The President of the European Research Council, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, visited last May 15th the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC).

The event was inaugurated by IBEC’s Director, Josep Samitier, who presented an overview on the cutting-edge research carried out at the institute in the fields of bioengineering and nanomedicine.

Afterwards, ERC Grantees working at IBEC had the opportunity to explain the impact of ERC grants on their professional careers and established a dialogue with ERC President on the past, present and future of the European Research Council.

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IBEC co-organizes the informative session “Individual Actions Marie Skłodowska-Curie 2019”

May 20, 2019

The past 14 of May was held at the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) the informative session “Individual actions Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA), call 2019 “.

The session, co-organized by the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), the European Office of FECYT and the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR), brought together more than 100 assistants between project managers and researchers. The conference, inaugurated by Professor Josep Samitier, Director of the IBEC, started with the participation of Cristina Gómez, National Contact Point of the European Office of the Ministry MICIU, and with Aïda Díaz in representation of AGAUR.

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IBEC receives the TECNIO seal to promote technology transfer to companies

May 14, 2019

The IBEC among the six Catalan centers that have received the TECNIO seal this year. This accreditation allows SMEs and companies to identify centers that offer differential technology and increase innovation rates.

The Government of Catalonia has accredited the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) with the TECNIO seal. ACCIO – the Agency for the competitiveness of the company, under the Department of Enterprise and Knowledge -, has accredited this year six new centers with this seal.

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IBEC is a partner in four out of five 2018 BIST Ignite Grants awarded to multidisciplinary research projects

April 15, 2019

Four projects coordinated by 2 group leaders and 2 researchers from IBEC have been successful in gaining funding through the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology’s IGNITE call.

The BIST Ignite Programme is a mechanism to foster multidisciplinary research among the BIST members. Its goal is to promote new collaboration between its partners, facilitating the exchange of knowledge among different scientific fields and exploring new approaches. The projects that can be eligible for the grants must pursue the exploration of new questions and technological challenges through novel multidisciplinary approaches. The selected projects are granted with 20.000€ each and researchers will have 8 months to develop their projects.

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The second edition of IBEC’s Faster Future programme will be dedicated to the fight against Parkinson

April 2, 2019

The programme IBEC Faster Future, an initiative that aims to help accelerate research projects that are close to tackling major challenges in health, will enable the development of a new antibody that will be the base of a therapeutic product for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

The Faster Future program campaign “Let’s tackle Parkinson”, which is launched today and will remain open to donations until the 30th of April, has the aim to raise 50,000 € needed to accelerate this research, seeking to obtain favourable results within a year and a half.

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12th Annual Conference of Biomedical Research Technology Platforms

March 7, 2019

The Spanish Platform for Nanomedicine (NanoMedSpain) coordinated by Josep Samitier, director of IBEC, has participated once again in the Annual Conference of Technological Platforms of Biomedical Research that took place in Madrid during the days 5 an 6 of March.

This yearly conference, organised by the four national platforms Farmaindustria, Asebio, NanomedSpain and FENIN -Innovative medicines, nanomedicine, sanitary technology and biotechnological markets- where the main issue was how to boost biomedical research hubs in Spain. During the morning of the 5th of March, the directors of each platform presented a summary of their activity during 2018, after which their invited speakers gave talks. This year, NanomedSpain has invited Per Matsson, president of EIT Health Scandinavia and CTO at Thermo Fisher Scientific Immunodiagnostics whose speech was entitled “Innovation in health: from biomarker discovery to implementation”.

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Pere Roca winner of EBSA Young Investigator’s Prize

February 25, 2019

Pere Roca-Cusachs, group leader at IBEC and assistant professor at the University of Barcelona, has won the 2019 Young Investigator Prize for his contributions to the field of mechanobiology. The award is given by the European Biophysical Societies Association (EBSA).

EBSA association grants this prize every two years. The last winner of the prize was Philipp Kukura from the University of Oxford in the UK in 2017. The prize recognises an investigator who has defended his thesis 12 years ago or less across Europe and awards him with 2000€ and a medal as well as be expected to contribute an article to the European Biophysics Journal.

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Mechanobiology of Cancer Summer School 2019

February 21, 2019

The MECHANO·CONTROL consortium, led by several research institutions across Europe, is launching a Summer School that will be taking place between 17-20 of September 2019 at the Eco Resort in La Cerdanya. The aim of the summer school is to provide training on mechanobiology, and specifically its application to breast cancer.

This school will include lectures as well as practical workshops in different techniques and disciplines, ranging from modelling to biomechanics to cancer biology. There will be scientific sessions in the morning, mixing 6 keynote speakers with 18 short talks selected from abstract submissions by junior scientists attending the school. In the afternoon, there will be 2-3-hour practical workshops, given by scientists from the MECHANO·CONTROL consortium. The course will also include leisure activities.

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IBEC signs an agreement for 1.5 million euros with Scranton Enterprises

February 14, 2019

The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) has signed an agreement for an initial investment round of one and a half million euros with Scranton Entreprises B.V. -an investment association headquartered in the Netherlands-, with the aim of developing technology that predicts the probability of implantation of embryos obtained through in vitro fertilization.

This agreement is the first to be established within the framework of the institute’s new initiative, the Open Innovation Lab, that offers companies and investors a platform to bring the cutting-edge research to patients and to the market faster.

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