in vivo January 2013 | Issue 21
NEWSLETTER OF THE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN BIOMEDICINE
A life-changing experience
“Colon cancer metastasis: a test for patients at risk in a few years”
“Crazy about Biomedicine”. The name
An innovative approach has allowed Group Leader
of this new educational program launched in
and ICREA professor Eduard Batlle and associate re-
January by IRB Barcelona and the Fundació Catalunya–La Pedrera is also an apt description for the 24 high school students selected to participate in the year-long series of seminars and hands-on activities in the lab.
searcher Elena Sancho to look for answers to the puzzling question: what triggers a metastasis? The research, which earned the front page of the November issue of Cancer Cell, focused on the mechanisms and “dangerous liaisons” which allow colon cancer to grow in distant organs, such as the liver and the lung. “In about five years,” declared Sancho, “we will probably have a test on the market that identifies those patients at risk of metastasis”. Sònia Armengou reports on page 3.
Biostatisticians of the world unite for a Barcelona BioMed Conference
PHOTO: L.T. BARONE
Francisco Freixo and Benjamí Oller, both PhD students and Student Council members at IRB Barcelona, inaugurated the first class of the series inside the prestigious building of the La Pedrera, in the heart of Barcelona. Captivated by the themes discussed in the engaging lectures, the students flooded the speakers with questions, leaving the organisers “pleasantly surprised.” Julia García López has the story on page 4.
p2
First ”la Caixa” theses defended
p5
Core Facility manager
out: “We wanted to show
David Rossell was one of
how important it is to de-
the co-organisers of the lat-
velop new methodologies
est Barcelona BioMed Con-
and to convince scientists
ference, sponsored by the
that their approach should
BBVA Foundation, which
be guided by objective nu-
took place in December.
merical assessments.”
The organisers had two objectives, as Rossell points
Exchanges Pablo Martín at Caltech
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More details about the conference on page 5.
PHOTO: L.T. BARONE
First Students’ Day
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Spotlight Meritxell Teixidó, ‘shuttle creator’