IBEC Archives - Page 4 of 7 - Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia

October 28, 2019October 8, 2019

IBEC obtains a second Severo Ochoa accreditation for Excellence

The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia is one of the six centres in Spain to be awarded accreditation in this round of the Severo Ochoa Excellence programme. Furthermore, IBEC is the only center that receives this accreditation for the second time.

The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities published yesterday the results of the winners of this distinction, selected by an international panel of a hundred judges, for its scientific results and strategic programmes.

Severo Ochoa Excellence Awards identify and promote public research centres and units in Spain that stand out as international references in their specialized fields

IBEC Director Josep Samitier expressed his gratitude for the award and highlights that: “the obtention of the Severo Ochoa accreditation for the second time satisfies us greatly because it recognizes the leadership and excellence of IBEC activities both in research and in translation of the obtained results to society”.

October 28, 2019October 2, 2019

The directing board of the “Asociación Catalana de Fibrosis Quística” visits IBEC

Representatives of the board of directors of the Catalan Association of Cystic Fibrosis (ACFQ) recently visited IBEC laboratories to discuss the latest advances in bacterial resistance with Dr. Eduard Torrents, principal investigator at IBEC of the group of Bacterial infections: Antimicrobial therapies .

Eduard Torrents, with the support of the ACFQ since 2009, is investigating different antimicrobial strategies to eradicate infections associated with this disease. As on previous occasions, he showed his laboratory to the representatives of the association and shared with them the latest advances in the different lines he is currently developing. “Working with the patient association made me change the way I was doing my research, I want to find solutions,” he said.

On their behalf, the “Associació Catalana de Fibrosi Quística”, that since his foundation at 1988 backs the assistencial and researcher work, devotes a large part of its financial resources to achieve progress in treatment and research, providing different improvements to different research groups .

October 9, 2019September 27, 2019

Rob Surgical, the spin-off created by IBEC and the UPC, closes a €5 million investment round with Scranton Enterprises

Rob Surgical, the spin-off created by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) in 2012, has closed a €5 million investment round with the Dutch holding Scranton Enterprises to fund the final phase of the new Bitrack System and launch the product onto the market

Rob Surgical is a company which designs and develops new robotic systems for minimally invasive surgery. The investment will facilitate the obtention of the CE marking for the new Bitrack System, which will enable it’s break into the market to improve the effectiveness of current surgical robotics.

The Bitrack System will be an alternative to the current laparoscopy surgical robot Da Vinci and will be an improvement on what is currently available in terms of efficiency.

October 28, 2019September 23, 2019

Researchers perform thousands of mutations to understand amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Researchers from IBEC and CRG in Barcelona use a technique called high-throughput mutagenesis to study Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), with unexpected results.

Results showed that aggregation of TDP-43 is not harmful but actually protects cells, changing our understanding of ALS and opening the door to radically new therapeutic approaches.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating and incurable nervous system disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing loss of muscle control and normally death within a few years of diagnosis. In ALS, like in other neurodegenerative diseases, specific protein aggregates have long been recognized as the pathological hallmarks, but it is not clear whether they represent the actual cause of the disease. Indeed, alleviating aggregation has repeatedly failed as a therapeutic strategy when trying to treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

October 28, 2019September 12, 2019

Olive oil offers two powerful weapons in the fight against antibiotic resistance

Researchers from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia and the University of Granada have created two potent antimicrobials from oleanolic acid and maslinic acid, both of which are found in olive oil

The study, published in the journal ACS Infectious Diseases, has demonstrated the effect of these derivatives on the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, one of the main causes of infections in catheters and prostheses.
Liquid gold. This is how all Mediterranean cultures have referred to olive oil throughout history. Its captivating flavour, its texture and its role in gastronomy have been some of the qualities that have contributed to this. But olive oil is also a great ally when it comes to health: from antiinflammatory properties to benefits for the cardiovascular system, and even recently discovered antitumor effects. Now, scientists from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the University of Granada (UGR) have contributed new insights that increase the already well-known antimicrobial properties of olive oil.
To do this, they have synthesised two derivatives with enormous antimicrobial potential from two compounds present in olive oil—oleanolic acid and maslinic acid.

June 4, 2020August 2, 2019

Bioengineering for health; virtual reality for stroke recovery

The SPECS group, together with the physical medicine and rehabilitation department of the hospital Sant Joan de Barcelona, explain us in the news of Punt Avui television, their study in virtual reality for patients who have suffered a stroke. The study began in 2014 and is a reinforcement of the basic rehabilitation treatment. In this case, a study has been done with 18 patients and a clear improvement has been observed after two months thanks to this system.

July 23, 2019July 19, 2019

International experts in Bioengineering meet in Barcelona on the occasion of the 12th IBEC Symposium

On Wednesday July 17th, the 12th IBEC Annual Symposium was held at the Hotel Catalonia Plaza in Barcelona. With the participation of more than 300 assistants and the exhibition of more than 102 scientific posters, this year, the event focused on Bioengineering for active aging – one of the three main research areas of IBEC- and had the participation of three MIT speakers (Massachusets Institute of Technology), among others.

“Active aging” or “healthy life expectancy” is an indicator defined by WHO as the equivalent in years of life that individuals are expected to live in good health, and that is approximately a world average of 10 years Less than life expectancy. In recent years, researchers from around the world have put their attention on this indicator, because life expectancy is increasing and also the possibility of suffering diseases associated with aging, which puts the current health system at risk that will have to strengthen its effectiveness in the areas of health promotion and prevention.

July 5, 2019July 4, 2019

A mechanism has been discovered that could improve spinal cord injuries

A study led by researchers from IBEC and Imperial College London has identified a mechanism that regulates the regenerative failure in lesions of the central nervous system. For the first time, experts have also proven how the genetic or pharmacological inhibition of the new therapeutic target could overcome regeneration failure following spinal cord injury

Will I recover from this injury? Answering this question that many patients ask themselves after a fall or any other type of accident or disease is still a major challenge. And the fact is that the molecular mechanisms that discriminate between regeneration success or failure remain a mystery to science. Although lesions of the peripheral nervous system may be partially reversible, lesions of the central nervous system cannot regenerate themselves in the same way. This lack of regenerative capacity is mainly responsible for the functional deficits that appear after a spinal cord injury, for example.

July 3, 2019

PhD Thesis defence: Javier Burgués

“Signal Processing and Machine Learning for Gas Sensors: Gas Source Localization with a Nano-Drone”. Javier Burgués, Signal and information processing for sensing systems group Chemical source localization (CSL) by autonomous robots … Read more

July 3, 2019