CRG organizes a scientific coffee

Researchers like Pia Cosma, Ilario De Toma (CRG), Rosa Casas Rodríguez (IDIBAPS), Mònica López Vicente, Institut de Salut Global de Barcelona (ISGlobal), and acting as moderators Marta Solís and Carlos Sierra, (CRG).

Next Saturday there is a great opportunity to bring science closer to citizens. The Mercat de Les Corts (food market) will be the venue where scientifics will talk about the importance of healthy eating.

Pia Cosma and a number of CRG researchers will talk to common people on the importance of having healhty habits and taking care of what they eat. The event will be held on Saturday 18 May, at 11.00h at Travessera de Les Corts, 215, Barcelona.

The CRG Scientific Cafes are spaces for dialogue between experts on a current science-based topic and the general public. The aim is to have society learn about science and generate an exchange of views on related topics.

The idea is how to approach science to a non-specialized public, to make it arrive in a simple way. As such, people can have a more critic view and acquire a basic knowledge to help them discern if what they hear in the news is true or not.

ICFO receives 1 millon dollars for research

More good news for research in Barcelona. The Institut de Ciències Fotòniques (ICFO) of Castelldefels, has received 1.1 million dollars from American foundation the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to investigate the hybrid quantum networks.

The grant, received by ICFO’s researcher Hugues de Riedmatten, will help develop efficient quantum computers and, in the long term, to build a quantum networks.

As the professor explains: “It is very important that fundamental and applied research go hand by hand”. “This kind of grant supporting fundamental, curiosity driven and risky projects allows us to explore new directions that may one day lead to new technology.“

Based in Castelldefells, near Barcelona, ICFO is a research institution that aims to advance the very limits of knowledge in Photonics, namely the science and technology of harnessing Light. The institute focuses on current and future problems in Health, Energy, Information, Safety, Security and caring for the Environment.

The environment is sometheing that worries the Betty Moore Foundations, which mission is to create positive outcomes for future generations. For that, they foster path-breaking scientific discovery that supports protecting the environment.

Pia Cosma interviewed in La Vanguardia

Pia Cosma talked recently to La Vanguardia, a Barcelona-based leading paper.

Headlined “Can the retina be regenerated with stem cells?” the interview explains Pia Cosma’s work on treating blindness.

Retinitis pigmentosa is the most common cause of blindness of genetic origin in adults. It affects one person in every 3,700, which slowly but progressively loses the photoreceptor cells of the retina.

It is a disease with a huge impact on the autonomy and quality of life of the people affected and that today has no effective treatment.

The article mentions that some animals, such as zebrafish, salamanders and some birds, have the ability to regenerate their retinas. Pia Cosma, specialist in cellular reprogramming of the Genomic Regulation Center (CRG) of Barcelona, ​​has managed to regenerate them also in mice and has proposed to achieve it in the future in people.

As Pia Cosma explains, “what we expect to happen is that the new cells fuse with the tissue of the organoid and replace the damaged photoreceptors”.

The interview is a part of a series that under the name “Big Vang” have been sponsored by La Caixa to bring science closer to readers.

Pia Cosma explains science

Pia Cosma – CRG is a researcher that takes communications seriously. Trough her team website, she gives information on the advances of her research and news regarding her team.

An example is this video which makes a pice of Pia Cosma’s research understandable. The study focuses on the changes in chromatin structure and organisation during somatic cell reprogramming and differentiation, but nothing better than a video to bring this closer to viewers.

Pia Cosma explains science

It is important to bring science and research closer to all audiences, and tools such as websits, videos and pics are great for dissemination and explanatory purposes.

Why did you choose Barcelona for research?

I enjoyed a lot the article published in La Vanguardia about Barcelona aiming to become a pole for research.

It is true that in a global world there are many researchers that have left their countries of origin to settle in Barcelona and carry their research activities in our city.

The center I know better, the CRG – Center for Genomic Regulation, has a number of foreign researchers – I remember having read that it actually has over 400 from 4 different countries. Pia Cosma (CRG) is a researcher who did most of her studies in Naples and Vienna and landed in Barcelona in 2010.

The authour of the article in La Vanguardia talks with Ben Lehner, a german-born genetists at the CRG who says he felt in love with city while visiting it as a tourist and it was then when he chose to come to Barcelona as a researcher.

I was at a meeting of Barcelona Global some months ago and this was also mentioned: Barcelona has a strong asset in a way that it is one of the most visited cities in the world and this includes some interesting and talented people among all the tourists.

It was even mentioned the strong role that family and partners have when choosing Barcelona as a place to settle.

We should not forget this.

Citadel of knowledge – the new space for research in Barcelona

Barcelona aims at attracting more and better science and that’s why the city of Barcelona, the regional government and the UPF university have agreed to create a new hub for research. The space called ciutadella del coneixement (citadel of knowledge) covers around 7.500 sqm near the sea and the Borne neighbourhood, and will afford interesting players both public and private to set their offices there.

The place will be conveniently located near the CRG – Center for Genomic Regulation, which based in the building of the PRBB – Barcelona Biomedical Research Park and gathers an importate amount of top researchers.

The citadel of knowledge will see the UPF University and the BIST –the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology that groups seven of Catalonia’s research centres of excellence, inlcuding the already mentioned CRG – CRG – Center for Genomic Regulation.

A great decision for the scientific community which we’ll be looking at closely.

CRG receives award from EJE&CON

CRG – the Center for Genomic Regulation has received the award in the “talent, not gender” category from EJE&CON, a directors association.

CRG has a great number of female researchers such as group leaders Maria Pia Cosma and Fátima Gebauer, who investigate new treatments for retinal degeneration and melanoma metastasis and progression respectively.

The jury has taken into account the very human resources policy, which follows very transparent recruitment criteria, promote stimulating working conditions and training and promote equal opportunities with active gender equality policies.

Luis Serrano, the director of CRG – Center for Genomic Regulation received the award from Lucas Osorio, Managing Partner Madrid at Hogan Lovells.

Research jobs in Barcelona: interesting websites

I wanted for a long time to put together a list with the openings for the science community in Barcelona, so I decided today to give it a try. Just by checking the BIST associated centers, we can find below the following interesting links. Please share your knowledge so that we can expand the list!

The Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) lists its job opportunities here . It has furthermore the site Alumni where scholarships and trainings are listed too.

The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC): has the following list of available jobs. It has this guide too on the research path in Spain, which is very visual – by MINECO’s Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT).)

The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) displays both jobs and internships.

The Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) publishes jobs and grants here

The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) publishes here its job opportunities

The Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) has the job listing and you can subscribe to job alerts here too.

Researchers and personal branding: Pia Cosma CRG

I like his example by the team of Pia Cosma – see web here- at which a mix of news of the research project, life at the lab, and job section.

Fundraising is key to fuel research and that’s why I believe it is extremely important for researchers to communicate and show what they do.

In today’s competitive environment researchers have many commonalities with brands. As such they need to spend time lobbying for their research and fight for visibility like brands and companies do.

Pia Cosma, a researcher at Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona is trying to understand the mechanisms controlling somatic cell reprogramming and tissue regeneration.

I wish other stakeholders, from the media to schools, helped in shaping stronger brands within the scientific community, as it is a first step in bringing knwoledge closer to the people and making it easier for research to be funded.

It is another way of bringing science closer to the community: be it students, other researchers of citizens at large.

Towards a bright future for Barcelona’s research and biotech

Barcelona may host the most powerful computer in Europe. These are definitely good news or the scientific community and for the city too – let us remember that political instability was pointed at as the main cause why the European Medicines Agency chose Amsterdam over Barcelona when forced to leave London and the Brexit.

Barcelona needs some good news in order to show the world all the great potential the city has, manly in terms of innovation and talent attraction, and the field of science is a major one.

If the new computer comes to Barcelona it could increase by 200 times the calculation speed of the supercomputing that already exists (Mare nostrum 4), which is already a state-of the-art computer.

The Center for Genomic Regulation, CRG, for instance, is one of the centers working very hard to decipher the genome and a big part of this work is based on having the capacity to run computer analyses. Having at hand such a computer that is able to run 200.000 billion operations per second could significantly increase the chances of the scientific community to be successful. And this could pave the way for new advances in research than would subsequently foster the creation of new start-ups.

Let alone the fact that if the supercomputer finally arrives to Barcelona it is expected that some powerful ITers and programmers will come to the city too, thereby contributing to enhancing Barcelona’s great possibility to become a top-research city.

So, fingers crossed!