2009 IRB Barcelona Annual Report

Centres de Recerca de Catalunya

2009 IRB Barcelona Annual Report

© Copyright 2010

Produced by:Office of Communications and External RelationsInstitute for Research in Biomedicine — IRB BarcelonaBaldiri Reixac, 1008028 Barcelona, Spainwww.irbbarcelona.org

Editing and layout:Anna Alsina

Design:Nicola Graf

Photography:Raimon Solà (group photos), Maj Britt Hansen, Marta Pérez (pp. 43, 65, 66), Roland Pache (p. 67), Office of Communications and External Relations

Printing:Puresa/La Trama

Legal deposit:B-7910-2010

This document has been printed using environmentally-friendly paper produced from sustainable forestry initiatives.

Credits

4 2009 IRB Barcelona Annual Report

Table of Contents

Foreword ........ 6

Science at IRB Barcelona

Cell and Developmental Biology Programme ....................... 18

Structural and Computational Biology Programme ............... 23

Molecular Medicine Programme ...................................... 28

Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology Programme ............. 32

Oncology Programme ................................................... 36

Core Facilities ........................................................... 39

MetCentre................................................................ 43

2009 IRB Barcelona Annual Report 5

Facts and Figures

Board of Trustees ....................................................... 46

Executive Board ......................................................... 47

External Advisory Board ............................................... 48

Funding Sources ......................................................... 49

Scientific Output Summary ........................................... 50

Academic Training ...................................................... 55

Technology Transfer Activities ........................................ 59

Barcelona BioMed Seminars ........................................... 60

IRB Barcelona Events ................................................... 65

Outreach Activities ..................................................... 68

IRB Barcelona in the News............................................. 69

IRB Barcelona Organisation Chart .................................... 71

Directorate and Administration Staff ............................... 72

Human Resources Statistics ........................................... 73

Researcher Affiliations ................................................ 75

Barcelona Science Park ................................................ 77


This is the 2009 Annual Report of the Institute

for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), a

young and dynamic research centre in the heart

of Catalonia, launched in 2005. The aim of this docu-

ment is to provide an overview of the activities and

developments that have taken place within the IRB Bar-

celona research community over the past year.

Accompanying this edition is a DVD which contains a

further selection of IRB Barcelona publications, includ-

ing the 2009 Scientific Report (a detailed summary of

the work carried out during the year by our research

groups and core facilities), Science Stories from IRB

Barcelona (a book aimed at a non-specialist audience

that features a selection of research projects currently

being carried out at the Institute) as well as other

documents that provide a snapshot of life inside the

laboratory.

Forging ahead at the frontier of biomedical research

2009 was a year for increased growth and improve-ment at IRB Barcelona. First, our Oncology Programme expanded in May with the arrival of researcher Travis Stracker from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Stracker and his group focus their research on genomic instability and cancer. They hope to further their understanding of how DNA damage re-sponse affects key signal transduction networks, and how this impairment can lead to tumour development.

The Advanced Digital Microscopy (ADM) Core Facility, a joint adventure of IRB Barcelona and the Barcelona Science Park, was officially launched in April. Under the leadership of Julien Colombelli (previously at the Euro-pean Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Ger-many), the facility provides a complete range of light microscopy imaging services to the IRB Barcelona and PCB research communities as well as to visiting scien-tists. The addition of the ADM brings to six the number of core facilities that IRB Barcelona has created for the

Foreword


benefit of the scientific community at the Barcelona Science Park.

A new Department of Innovation and Strategic Projects, led by Jorge Domínguez, was established in March. The department assists IRB Barcelona members in identifying, protecting, developing and commercial-ising their discoveries and inventions with the goal of ensuring that research ultimately reaches and benefits the public.

In December, Màrius Rubiralta resigned from his group leader position in the Chemistry and Molecular Phar-macology Programme in order to attend to his duties in the Spanish government. IRB Barcelona is indebted to Dr Rubiralta for the key role he played in creating the Barcelona Science Park as well as the Institute. Elena Sancho’s research group merged with that of Eduard Batlle, thus reinforcing our research efforts in colon cancer.

IRB Barcelona’s main priority remains the continued pursuit of excellence in research through the improve-ment of existing programmes and the addition of tal-ented new research groups. Angel R Nebreda will join the Institute from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (Madrid) early in 2010, thus strengthening and reinforcing the Oncology Programme. The Molecular Medicine Programme is also in the process of recruiting a new group leader.

IRB Barcelona also completed the first round of the pre-evaluation process for those group leaders who have

been with us for more than three years. The feedback received from the reviewers served to identify strengths and weaknesses in order to foster the continued im-provement of the Institute’s research programmes.

On the right roadIRB Barcelona’s External Advisory Board, a group of 15 leading international researchers who help guide us in shaping our research and related activities, held their second meeting at the beginning of May. The goals of the meeting were to review the implementation of the Board’s earlier recommendations, to evaluate the Cell and Developmental Biology and Structural and Compu-tational Biology Programmes, to familiarise themselves with newly recruited group leaders and facility heads and to advise IRB Barcelona on the development of our future strategic plan.

The Board evaluated the implementation of improve-ments in a variety of areas, and advised us to continue

IRB Barcelona’s main priority remains the continued pursuit of excellence in research through the improvement of existing programmes and the addition of talented new research groups


to build on the strengths of our programmes and our training potential in order to position IRB Barcelona at the forefront of biomedical research. They also studied the Strategic Plan, which will guide the growth of the Institute for the next six years.

Competitiveness in attracting resourcesIRB Barcelona researchers enjoyed considerable suc-cess in 2009 in obtaining funding for scientific projects from the European Union. Under the 7th Framework Pro-gramme’s Health section, over five million euros during three years were awarded to two projects coordinated by IRB Barcelona researchers: Mephitis, led by group leader Lluís Ribas de Pouplana, will study the formation of proteins in the parasite involved in the transmission of malaria, and MITIN, led by group leader Antonio Zor-zano, is a pioneering project that will use bioinformat-ics approaches to obtain information about the complex disease diabetes. Zorzano is also heading up a consor-tium called DIOMED (Diabetes, Obesity and Medicine) as part of the EU’s Interreg IV B SUDOE programme, aimed at fostering the technological development of southern Europe. DIOMED will receive more than 800,000 euros’ funding over three years.

During 2009 IRB Barcelona researchers also partici-pated in several national research networks, including CONSOLIDER, CIBERBBN, CIBERDEM, CIBERER, CIBERNED and RETIC.

Focus on trainingTraining activities at IRB Barcelona forge ahead at an exciting pace. Ten talented new students from nine different countries joined the ”la Caixa”/IRB Barce-lona International PhD Programme in September and will spend the next four years doing research toward their doctoral degrees in an IRB Barcelona group. The annual ”la Caixa” call was supplemented in 2009 with a second national-level call, which allowed a further five students to begin their studies. This represents a unique opportunity in that it offers a possibility for students to begin their doctoral studies at IRB Barcelona even before national fellowship calls are launched.

Our PhD students continue to be extremely active and in 2009 organised a series of activities including student seminars, ‘cool-off sessions’ and a football league, all aimed at creating possibilities for scientific and social interaction among their community. One major achieve-ment in 2009 was the celebration of the First IRB Bar-celona PhD Student Symposium, ‘The Architecture of Life’, on November 2-3. The symposium was organised in its entirety by the IRB Barcelona PhD Student Sympo-sium Committee, and welcomed distinguished speakers, including 2009 Nobel Laureate Ada Yonath. The sympo-sium was a great success and represents an enormous achievement for our students.

IRB Barcelona researchers enjoyed considerable success in 2009 in obtaining funding for scientific projects from the European Union


Training activities at IRB Barcelona forge ahead at an exciting pace

Postdoctoral training also received a boost in 2009 when four new postdocs took up their positions as a result of an interdisciplinary call launched in 2008. This initiative aims to foster collaborations within IRB Barcelona’s research areas and successful candidates are now carrying out their projects involving two of the Institute’s research programmes. Postdoc opportunities at the Institute will expand even further, as IRB Barce-lona has been awarded a substantial grant from the EU’s Marie Curie Programme. We will receive nearly one mil-lion euros over the next four years to recruit outstand-ing international postdoctoral researchers. We expect to fill the first positions in 2011.

Following the example of the PhD students, postdoc-toral researchers also coalesced and launched some ac-tivities to support their community in this critical time of their careers. They formed a council who will help to facilitate interaction, both scientific and social, among postdocs from across the Institute, and will liaise with IRB Barcelona management. They have collaborated in the organisation of training courses and career develop-ment activities.

Establishment of the MetCentreA new project at IRB Barcelona, called the MetCentre, was officially launched in July, during a visit to the Institute by the President of the Government of Catalo-nia, José Montilla. The MetCentre is a network of basic and clinical researchers working on different aspects of

metastasis. The Scientific Coordinator of the MetCentre is IRB Barcelona Adjunct Director Joan Massagué. Since its launch, the MetCentre has begun a regular seminar and group discussion series, which brings together re-searchers from the Hospital Clínic, the Vall d’Hebron Hospital, the Hospital del Mar, the Hospital de Sant Pau and IRB Barcelona.

Extending our networksIn addition to the formal collaborations that IRB Bar-celona has with the University of Barcelona and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, a new initiative was launched in 2009 to bring basic researchers at IRB Bar-


celona and clinical researchers at a number of centres across Barcelona closer together. Through the Institut d’Investigacions Sanitàries Hospital Clínic-IDIBAPS, a series of scientific exchange meetings was launched to discuss local research developments in a variety of topics related to human health. Meetings held in 2009 focused on cancer, neurosciences, metabolic and liver diseases, and infectious diseases and world health.

Reaching outIRB Barcelona continued to promote a series of outreach activities. The Barcelona BioMed Conferences, which were started in 2006, have established a firm niche in the international setting and continue to attract an out-standing line up of speakers for each event. In addition, several workshops and the forum dedicated to ‘Science and Art’ demonstrated the capacity of IRB Barcelona to draw a wide range of audiences.

Looking aheadIn just over four short years, IRB Barcelona has man-aged to achieve remarkable results. This can be seen in the success we have attained in recruiting top-level scientists from around the world, in achieving a re-spectable standard of publication, in attracting impor-tant resources from competitive international funds, in creating the infrastructure and activities necessary to facilitate excellence in our scientific and training endeavours, and in establishing strategic and fruitful collaborations. 2009 was no exception to this and no doubt we have taken major steps forward to achieving our goals.

Joan J Guinovart Director

Joan Massagué Adjunct Director


Science at IRB BarcelonaCell and Developmental Biology Programme

Structural and Computational Biology Programme

Molecular Medicine Programme

Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology Programme

Oncology Programme

Core Facilities

MetCentre


On a scale stretching from the size of single mol-ecules up to a multicellular organism, the cell

lies almost exactly in the middle, and it is the link between the two levels. By transforming information in its genome into proteins and other molecules, a cell knows when to divide, what shape to take on, and how it should behave to build a multicellular organism. Whether that body develops in a healthy way or suffers from disease can usually be traced back to what hap-pens within cells.

The Cell and Developmental Biology Programme aims to reveal how these levels are linked by looking deeply into the cell to study how structures arise and contrib-

Cell and Developmental Biology Programme

ute to the construction of an organism. Until about two decades ago, these questions were addressed in quite separate disciplines, but have since been drawn togeth-er into one which is showing rapid growth. Cell biolo-gists are getting a handle on the processes that enable cells to create larger structures, and developmental biologists are now looking at the cellular mechanisms that underlie the growth of embryos.

Bringing these themes together requires multidiscipli-nary experimental approaches that stem from modern molecular biology, classical genetics, biochemistry, advanced microscopy and state-of-the-art genomic and proteomic methods. The groups explore topics that in-clude how signals are passed within and between cells, what controls cell migration and intercalation, how boundaries form between tissues during development and how tissue growth is controlled.

Other themes include microtubule organisation, cell division in development and disease, epigenetic regula-tion and chromatin function, and how controlling the output of genes can be used for biomedical purposes. The research groups that form part of the Programme pursue these questions in several model organisms, among these yeast, Drosophila, frogs, mice and human parasites.


No cell produces RNAs and proteins from all of its genes

all of the time. Part of the reason for this is that the

DNA in the nucleus is wrapped around proteins and

other molecules in a form called chromatin. These

molecules have a crucial role because they help pack a

huge amount of DNA into the small space of the nucleus;

another function is to make genes accessible (or inac-

cessible) to the machinery that transforms them into

other types of molecules. Ferran Azorín’s lab studies the

molecular processes that structure chromatin and thus

control its biological effects. The main question they

work on addresses how large blocks of DNA are rendered

inactive, also known as ‘silencing’, and how the cell

keeps them that way. Several regions of DNA are almost

permanently silenced; others are switched on and off to

achieve particular developmental effects. Azorín and his

colleagues study both types.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Ferran Azorín I Research Associates: Jordi Bernués, Maria Lluïsa Espinàs I Postdoctoral Fellows: Martí Badal, Anne Daulny, Joan Font, Olga Moreno, Mónica Torras I PhD Students: Marta Batlle, Marta Blanch, Sergi Cuartero, Roman Kessler, Marta Lloret, Sonia Medina, Olivera Vujatovic I Research Assistants: Carles Bonet, Gemma Molla, Alicia Vera I Lab Technician: Ester Fuentes I Visiting Student: Nina Schuback (Germany)

Building a complex organism requires that cells special-

ise by changing the way they divide, their shape, and

behaviour, such as when and where they migrate. These

morphogenetic changes are coordinated by cues from

the environment, for instance, molecules secreted by

other cells. These must be interpreted properly inside

the cell, which means passing information along a path-

way of signalling molecules. The same signal may have

distinct effects at different times and places in the body.

Many of the pathways have been conserved over the

course of evolution, so studies of model organisms, such

as the fruit fly, can provide insights into the development

of humans and other animals. Jordi Casanova’s lab focus-

es on this process using the trachea and the Torso recep-

tor signalling pathway in flies as developmental models.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Jordi Casanova I Research Associates: Sofia Araújo, Andreu Casali, Xavier Franch, Marc Furriols IPostdoctoral Fellows: Kyra Campbell, Louis Gervais, Gaelle Le Breton IPhD Students: Elisenda Buti, Gaylord Darras, Marco Grillo, Oscar Mar-torell I Research Assistant: Nicolas Martin I Lab Technicians: Nuria Molist, Yolanda Rivera

Within the nucleus: chromatin structure and function

Signals that organise cells into body structures


Every cell in our bodies arose when a parent cell divided.

Cell division involves the perfect timing of multiple

events, and how it happens depends on the context: divi-

sion works differently in the cells of the early embryo, or

as stem cells specialise into blood, neurons and hundreds

of other cell types, or within a rapidly growing tumour.

Combining genetics, molecular biology, and advanced in

vivo microscopy, Cayetano González’s lab follows a multi-

disciplinary approach to study cell division. As model sys-

tems they use Drosophila as well as cultured cells from

vertebrates. Ongoing projects include the study of the

mitotic spindle (an assembly of fibres which pulls chro-

mosomes into two sets), the study of newly discovered

proteins that make up structures called centrosomes,

and models of cancer development in the fruit fly.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Cayetano González I Research Associate: Elena Rebollo I Postdoctoral Fellows: Jens Januschke, Bart Lesage, José Reina, Fabrizio Rossi, Zhanna Shcheprova I PhD Student: Ana Janic I Research Assistants: Jan Peter Heinen, Salud Llamazares I Lab Manager: Nuria López

Microtubules assemble the spindles that drive chromo-

some segregation during meiotic cell divisions. After

fertilisation, microtubules are required for cell prolifera-

tion. When cells differentiate, microtubules establish

cell polarity, participate in the communication between

cells, and are involved in cell migration. To carry out

such diverse functions, microtubules are organised into

highly ordered arrays of various sizes and shapes. Im-

proper microtubule organisation is linked to cancer and

developmental defects. To understand how cells organise

their microtubule network, Jens Lüders’ lab studies the

molecular mechanisms that determine where and when

microtubules are made. Using tissue cell culture and

Xenopus laevis egg extract as model systems, the lab fo-

cuses on the identification and characterisation of micro-

tubule assembly pathways and on the role of microtubule

organising centres, such as the centrosome.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Jens Lüders I Postdoctoral Fellows: Marco Archinti, Neus Teixidó I PhD Students: Florian Baier, Sabine Klischies, Nicolas Lecland I Research Assistant: Cristina Lacasa

The basis of cell division

The microtubule cytoskeleton: a matter of organisation


In the embryo, complex structures such as limbs begin

as groups of cells that are identical at first, but soon

subdivide into smaller territories, called compartments.

Marco Milán’s lab takes advantage of nearly a century

of genetic studies on the fruit fly to examine the signals

that guide the development of Drosophila limbs. Past

research has shown that compartments arise because of

mechanisms that prevent different types of cells from

mixing. This leads to subterritories and clear boundaries

between tissues. Cells at the boundary lines secrete sig-

nalling molecules such as Wg/Wnt and Dpp/TGFβ‚ which

guide the pattern development and growth of the entire

limb. Milán and his colleagues aim to understand how

these molecules control complex processes such as the

generation of adult limbs with a size, shape and pattern

specific to a species.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Marco Milán I Postdoctoral Fellows: Isabelle Becam, Fernando Bejarano, Andrés Dekanty, Ulla-Maj Fiuza, Héctor Herranz, Florencia Tevy I PhD Students: Lara Barrio, Laura Boulan, Duarte Mesquita, Neus Rafel, Georgina Sorrosal I Research Assistant: Lidia Pérez I Visiting Student: Thomas Oliver Auer (Germany)

To survive, cells have to transform information in their

genomes into RNAs and then into proteins. Carrying out

this latter step requires a complicated network of mol-

ecules, the details of which scientists are now unravel-

ling. Many interactions extend from the process of protein

manufacturing to other regulatory pathways in cells.

Imbalances caused by alterations of these interactions are

at the root of a number of diseases. Lluís Ribas de Pou-

plana’s lab explores these interaction networks in human

cells and in protozoa that infect human beings. Another of

the group’s interests is the evolution of the gene transla-

tion machinery, which underwent significant changes with

the emergence of eukaryotic cells such as yeast, plants,

and animals. Ribas and his colleagues hope to get a bet-

ter grasp of how these types of cells evolved by studying

molecules related to translation.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Lluís Ribas de Pouplana IResearch Associate: Alfred Cortés I Postdoctoral Fellows: Laia Cubells, Francesc Miró I PhD Students: Manuel Castro, Valerie Crowley, Tanit Guitart, Eva Novoa I Lab Technicians: Noelia Camacho, Nuria Rovira, Anna Tor I Visiting Scientist: Cristina Bancells (Spain)

Building limbs: signals, compartments and boundaries

Gene translation and disease


Building and rebuilding the brainThe development of the brain involves several steps:

regions have to form, and different types of nerve cells

have to develop, migrate to the right places, and prop-

erly wire themselves up to each other. They then have

to respond properly to stimulation to permit memory

and learning. Accomplishing these steps requires that

cells activate specific genes at the right time, cor-

rectly interpret signalling molecules on the surfaces of

other cells (or secreted by them), and respond in the

right way. Eduardo Soriano’s lab focuses on identifying

new genes that contribute to these processes. Another

topic addressed by the group is the difference between

brain cells in the embryo and early childhood, which

can develop and repair themselves, and those in the

adult, which cannot. Insights into the mechanisms of

early brain development may help scientists design

new regenerative therapies to repair damage in the

adult brain.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Eduardo Soriano I Research Associates: Ferran Burgaya, Albert Martínez, Marta Pascual, Alexander Ulloa, Jesús Ureña I Postdoctoral Fellows: Tiziana Cotrufo, Guillermo López, Lluís Pujadas, Catia Teixeira I PhD Students: Carles Bosch, Giulia Fuschini, Beatriz García, Maria del Mar Masdeu, Serena Mirra, Mª Esther Pérez, Oriol Ros, Daniela Rossi, Esmeralda Rubio, Román Serrat I Masters Student: Nuria Masachs I Research Assistant: Ashraf Muhaisen I Lab Technicians: Lucas Brunso, Sandra Mas, Natalia Ruiz I Administrative Assistant: Jan Vara


Physics and life meet at the level of single mol-ecules, the behaviour of which is dictated by their

shapes and chemical properties. DNA, RNA, proteins and other molecules interact and transform each other in a complex dance that creates living organisms; a detailed understanding of life requires linking the behaviour of these components to their structures.

This knowledge is crucial in research into genetic diseases, which are often caused by small structural changes in molecules. It is also required to improve drugs and develop new ones. A drug is usually a small

Structural and Computational Biology Programme

molecule that functions by plugging itself onto a protein and altering its behaviour. Without a structural picture of this interaction, it is generally impossible to know exactly how pharmaceutical agents work.

The Structural and Computational Biology Programme gathers a wide range of expertise to examine these aspects of life. Great advances over the last three dec-ades in techniques like X-ray crystallography and NMR, for which state-of-the-art facilities are available at IRB Barcelona, have provided detailed structural maps of many key biological molecules. But many remain to be explored, and it has also been difficult to get a look at the internal workings of ‘molecular machines’ compris-ing many molecules.

In many cases it is possible to deduce structural in-formation about new proteins and their interactions by comparing their sequences with those of other known molecules. This approach requires the use of innova-tive computational tools, the potential of which has grown enormously since scientists have been able to draw on the wealth of information produced in genome projects.


Genome-sequencing initiatives have provided a nearly

complete parts list of the molecules that can be pro-

duced by an organism; new post-genomic techniques

are steadily revealing which of them are used to build

particular machines in the cell. What is missing, how-

ever, is a detailed view of the way the pieces snap

together. Patrick Aloy’s lab designs new bioinformatics

methods to combine information from genomes (protein

sequences) with the parts lists of machines (obtained

through mass spectrometry and other techniques) and

information about the interactions of single surfaces

or parts (from X-ray and NMR studies) into diagrams of

the inner construction of complexes. This information

can be used to pinpoint specific weak points within a

complex that can be targeted in experiments or in the

design of new drugs.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Patrick Aloy I Research Associate: Roberto Mosca I Postdoctoral Fellows: Arnaud Ceol, Albert Pujol, Guillermo Suñé, Andreas Zanzoni I PhD Students: Manuel Alonso, Rodrigo Arroyo, Clara Berenguer, Marc Duocastella, Roland Pache, Amelie Stein I Research Assistant: Ricart Lluís I Visiting Students: Rafael Pedret (Spain), Joan Marc Seoane (Spain), Francesc Tresserres (Spain), Josep Lluís Villanueva (Spain)

Diagrams of the insides of machines

Miquel Coll’s lab applies several techniques to study

how DNA behaves when it is linked to proteins and

other types of molecules. Their main approach is the

use of high-intensity X-rays to analyse molecules in

a crystal form. One of the lab’s research focus is to

study how proteins link to DNA to control the activ-

ity of genes, which is a key step in most biological

processes. The laboratory also devotes part of its

research efforts to studying a phenomenon called

horizontal gene transfer, in which cells carry DNA

from one to another. This process requires complex

mechanisms that can carry DNA across membranes.

Other research topics include the study of unique

DNA structures and novel drugs that dock onto DNA

rather than proteins.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Miquel Coll I Research Associates: Albert Canals, Maria Solà, Cristina Vega I Postdoctoral Fellows: Carme Arnan, Daniel Badia, Roeland Boer, Carlo Carolis, Lionel Costenaro, José Fernández, Robert Janowski, Joan Pous, Fabio Sessa I PhD Students: Juliana Amodio, Pablo Fernández, Nereida Jiménez, Zuzanna Kaczmarska, Diana Martínez, Marta Nadal, Esther Peña, Radoslaw Pluta, Anna Rubio, Silvia Russi I Masters Student: Nayibe Guarín I Research Assistants: Leonor Alloza, Maïlys Boutin, Maria Pérez I Lab Technician: Esther Ferrando I Visiting Student: Alejandra Herrera (Chile)

Molecules that bind to DNA


Proteins play key roles in most biological processes but

seldom act alone. Often a molecule binds to dozens of

other proteins, RNAs, or other molecules to perform a

particular task. However, it has been difficult to observe

details of the inner structures of proteins and in some

cases even to discover where they work in the cell. To

address these kinds of questions, Ignasi Fita’s lab uses

X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy to

study the structural biology of the peroxisome, one of

the smallest, membrane-bound, eukaryotic organelles.

The group is particularly interested in complexes that

play a role in disease processes and in the proteins that

attach to the organelle’s membrane. The group also

collaborates in the study of the large eukaryotic ribonu-

cleo protein complexes known as ‘vaults’ and in viruses

bound to receptor proteins required for cell entry. Work

is also performed on a diversity of enzymes, in particu-

lar related to oxidative stress.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Ignasi Fita I Postdoctoral Fellows: Xavi Carpena, Antonio Rodríguez I PhD Students: David Aparicio, Bárbara Machado, Luca Martinelli I Lab Technician: Mª Queralt Garcia I Visiting Student: Maria Adell (Spain)

Oxidative stress: membrane proteins

A powerful technique for studying three-dimensional

structures is NMR, in which intense magnetic fields

are applied to protein solutions. Pulse sequences are

used to obtain signals that correlate to the distances

between atoms, thereby providing a representative

family of structures. Maria Macias’ lab specialises in the

use of this technique to study protein structures and

their complexes as well as how they fold. Having set up

an efficient collaboration process that helps other labs

to determine protein structures, the group provides

the protocols necessary to produce pure and labelled

proteins at the milligram scale, helps and supervises the

assignment of NMR data and provides modified protocols

for structure determination in solution.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Maria Macias I PhD Students: Eric Aragón, Albert Escobedo, Nina Görner, Jordi Mas I Masters Student: Tiago López I Research Assistant: Pau Martín I Lab Technician: Lidia Ruiz

NMR and protein purification


The interactions of proteins and other molecules hap-

pen so quickly and at such a small scale that they can-

not be observed directly. These types of connections

have to be studied through theoretical models that

incorporate information from many different sources

and the roots of which are anchored in the basic

principles of physics and chemistry. Modesto Orozco’s

lab combines a variety of methodologies, including

the automatic mining of biological databases and the

adaptation of mathematical calculations from classi-

cal dynamics and quantum chemistry, with the aim of

modeling living organisms in the computer. The long-

term goal of the lab is to connect the smallest scale

of life to the behaviour of cells and larger systems in

organisms.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Modesto Orozco I Research Associates: Agustí Emperador, Josep Lluís Gelpí, Manuel Rueda IPostdoctoral Fellows: Neva Besker, Oliver Carrillo, Kathryn Collinet, Santiago Esteban, Athi Narayanan, Guillem Portella, Nadine Simone I PhD Students: Annalisa Arcella, Özgen Deniz, Ignacio Faustino, Óscar Flores, Adam Hospital, Laura Orellana I Research Assistants: Jose Alcántara, Carlos Fenollosa, Chiara Lara, Margarita Pedro

Mining data and modelling interactions

Cells use regulatory networks to respond to their environ-

ment. Interactions in these networks are continuously

changing and are necessarily weak. Miquel Pons’ lab ap-

plies NMR to study what happens when proteins interact

with each other or with small molecules such as drugs. A

particularly intriguing case is that of intrinsically disor-

dered proteins that hide their interaction potential in an

apparent structural chaos. These complicated configura-

tions can be untangled using statistical modelling of NMR

and other experimental approaches. In drug develop-

ment, the complexity of the protein world and protein-

protein interactions is matched by the huge variety of

chemical structures that constitute the chemical space.

Pons and his colleagues develop new computational and

NMR screening tools to explore chemical space for small

molecules that can restructure protein complexes in a

therapeutically promising way.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Miquel Pons I Research Associates: Pau Bernadó, Jesús García I Postdoctoral Fellows: Yolanda Pérez, Alejandra Sornosa I PhD Students: Jascha Blobel, Giovanni Cincilla, Tiago Cordeiro, Carles Fernández, Arola Fortian, Oriol Marimon, Yandi Naranjo I Lab Technician: Isabel Latorre I Visiting Student: Lucas Gelain (Brazil)

Weak interactions are essential for regulation


Recent progress in genomics and high-throughput tech-

niques has led to an explosion of biological data, which

in turn has provided a great opportunity to compu-

tationally predict the complex biological networks in

living organisms. The EBL, managed by Montse Soler, is

devoted to integrating experimental information into in

silico models performed by computational biologists of

the Structural and Computational Biology Programme.

The lab’s main research areas include the genome

mapping of nucleosome positions for a variety of yeast

species and mammalian cell lines. The EBL also analy-

ses the regulatory potential of candidate promoter se-

quences along the human genome, and aims to describe

pathological pathways at the molecular level by com-

bining computational biology and interaction discovery

techniques.

Research Group Members I Laboratory Director: Montse Soler I Laboratory Manager: Maica López I Postdoctoral Fellows: Kathryn Collinet, Guillermo Suñé I PhD Students: Rodrigo Arroyo, Clara Berenguer, Özgen Deniz I Research Assistant: Chiara Castellazi I Lab Technician: Ricart Lluís I Visiting Student: Elisa Duran (Spain)

Integrating computation and experiments

The collaborative research programme between IRB Barcelona and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) continued to pursue new ad-vances in computational biology. Led by researchers Modesto Orozco (IRB Barcelona), Patrick Aloy (IRB Barcelona) and Víctor Guallar (BSC), the programme allows researchers from both institutions to share resources and services, and to work together toward finding bioinfor-matic solutions in the development of new projects in computational research. One of the initiatives of this joint collaboration is the Experi-mental Bioinformatics Laboratory (EBL).

Joint programme IRB Barcelona—BSC


The biomedical sciences are standing on the thresh-old of a new era in medicine that may one day

make it possible to cure cancer, diabetes, neurodegen-erative conditions, and a variety of diseases that can-not be combated with vaccines, antibiotics, or existing drugs.

Scientists have a wide range of new tools available to study the origins of disease and many new approaches to intervene in processes within cells. These tools have

Molecular Medicine Programme

already revolutionised medical diagnostics, and the vi-sion for the coming decades is to learn to apply them to directly manipulate the molecules responsible for diseases. The Molecular Medicine Programme seeks to further knowledge in these fields and find new ways to put discoveries to use.

The Programme boasts broad expertise in the fields of biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, cell signalling and regulation, genomics, genetics and immunology. Ongoing activities include the study of the molecular bases of diabetes, obesity, inflammation, metabolic syn-drome and rare diseases, and research into new treat-ments for these pathologies.

The Programme also addresses the signalling path-ways that control cellular processes, genome-wide in-vestigations of disease processes, the biology of macro-phage cells, the molecular basis of inherited aminoaci-durias and the structural basis of membrane transporter function.


Carme Caelles’ lab studies the principles that govern

cross talk between some of the cell’s most relevant

signalling pathways in the context of anti-inflammatory

action. Their research efforts are directed to gaining a

better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the

anti-inflammatory activity of molecules, including the

well-known anti-inflammatory drugs glucocorticoids. All

these molecules share the ability to inhibit the activa-

tion of pro-inflammatory signalling such as the stress-

activated protein kinase (SAPKs) pathways. For instance,

blockage of SAPK activation is crucial not only for the

anti-inflammatory action of these molecules, but also for

other relevant pharmacological actions, such as the anti-

diabetic action of thiazolidinediones. A second focus of

the group is the study of protein kinases of the NIMA fam-

ily involved in the regulation of the cell division cycle.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Carme Caelles I Research Associate: Joan Roig I Postdoctoral Fellow: Neus Teixidó I PhD Students: Mª Teresa Bertran, Kader Cavusoglu, Rodrigo Gatica, Jordi Lanuza, Giuseppe Pulice, Laura Regué, Sara Sdelci I Lab Technician: Cristina Vila

Understanding signals

Antonio Celada’s lab studies macrophages, a type of cell

that plays a key role in inflammation. At an early stage,

these cells have pro-inflammatory activity and eliminate

microorganisms present at the site of inflammation.

Later, they show anti-inflammatory activity and repair le-

sions. Macrophages also play a key role in chronic inflam-

matory processes, such as rheumatoid arthritis, and they

induce the formation of blood vessels, thereby promoting

the growth of cancer cells. Expanding the knowledge

about how these cells work and how to enhance their

beneficial action and prevent their harmful effects is

crucial. Celada and his colleagues study the signals that

trigger macrophages and the regulations of the genes that

activate the multiple functions of these cells. Their goal

is to find therapeutic targets to design drugs that alter

the activity of macrophages so that they can reproduce,

differentiate, or become activated, or die and disappear.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Antonio Celada I Research Associate: Jorge Lloberas I Postdoctoral Fellows: Mónica Comalada, Francesc Miró, Luís Santamaría I PhD Students: Erika Barboza, Selma Pereira, Neus Serrat, Lorena Valverde, Catrin Youssif I Research Assistants: Consol Farrera, Gemma López, Maria Sans I Visiting Students: Marta Pedreño (Spain), Catalina Rincón (Mexico), Judith Rodríguez (Spain), Damià Romero (Spain)

Inflammation and macrophages


Glucose is stored mainly in the liver and muscles in the

form of glycogen. The process of synthesis and degrada-

tion of glycogen is disturbed in diabetes mellitus and in

several other pathologies. Joan Guinovart’s lab is inter-

ested in the physiological regulation of glycogen metabo-

lism and the pathological implications of its alteration.

The group has reported several significant differences

in glycogen processing in liver and muscle, which help

to explain the defects observed in diabetes. It has also

revealed that neurons have the machinery for glycogen

synthesis but keep it blocked by three mechanisms, one

of which involves the malin-laforin complex. The acquired

knowledge will contribute to the development of strate-

gies for the treatment of pathologies related to altera-

tions in glycogen metabolism, such as diabetes mellitus,

glycogenoses, Lafora disease and other neurodegenera-

tive conditions.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Joan J Guinovart I Research Associates: Joaquim Calbó, María del Mar García I Postdoctoral Fellows: Adelaida Díaz, Jordi Duran, Carlos Rodríguez, Florencia Tevy, Delia Zafra I PhD Students: Óscar Blanco, Mireia Díaz, Carles Martínez, Laura Nocito, Susana Ros, Isabel Sáez, Felipe Slebe, Jordi Vallès I Research Assistant: Anna Adrover I Lab Technicians: Ester Guerra, Emma Veza I Administrative Assistant: Carolina Sánchez IVisiting Scientist: Núria de la Iglesia (Spain) I Visiting Students: Marta Moreno (Spain), Carlos Spichiger (Chile)

Metabolic engineering and diabetes therapy

The body needs a constant supply of amino acids to build

proteins and other processes. Cells are able to produce

many of the types of amino acids from simpler build-

ing blocks, but others must be obtained through food.

Obtaining these molecules means drawing them into the

cell through the membrane. Manuel Palacín’s lab stud-

ies this system and why it becomes defective in a set of

diseases called primary inherited aminoacidurias (PIAs).

Over the last 15 years, Palacín’s group has identified a

new family of membrane proteins called HATs, which are

responsible for the transport of several amino acids and

are disrupted during PIA diseases. The lab is analysing

the physiological role, the mechanisms of pathology and

the structures of HATs to gain a better understanding of

how they carry out their transporter functions.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Manuel Palacín I Research Associate: José Luís Vázquez I Postdoctoral Fellows: Chiara Bartoccioni, Susanna Bodoy, Joana Fort, Lukasz Kowalczyk, Mercè Ratera, Albert Rossell, Eva Valencia I PhD Students: Meritxell Costa, Gonzalo Delgado, Arturo Rodríguez, Laura Rodríguez I Lab Technicians: Susanna Bial, Vanesa Rodríguez, Jorge Seco I Project Manager: Olga Bausà I Visiting Students: Meritxell Espinó (Spain), Arantzazu Zubeldia (Spain)

Supplying the body with amino acids


Our increasingly sedentary lifestyle has created a grow-

ing epidemic of type 2 diabetes and associated problems

such as obesity, hypertension, and other conditions that

lead to increased morbidity and mortality. The combina-

tion of these disorders and insulin resistance, a condi-

tion known as metabolic syndrome, affects over 40%

of people over 60. Recent studies suggest that some of

these problems stem from common genetic and cellular

mechanisms. Antonio Zorzano’s lab seeks to identify

genes responsible for the development of insulin resist-

ance associated with obesity or type 2 diabetes. The

group focuses on genes related to processes that occur

in cellular structures called the mitochondria, in the

processes that control these and other genes, and the

identification of new signals that may be involved. Other

goals include understanding how glucose is transported

in cells, and identifying new compounds that might be

effective in treating metabolic syndrome.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Antonio Zorza-no I Postdoctoral Fellows: Mª Àngels Díaz, Saska Ivanova, Iliana López, Pablo Muñoz, Deborah Naon, Montserrat Romero, Jana Sán-chez, Manuela Sánchez, David Sebastián, Eleonora Sorianello I PhD Students: Víctor Francis, Maria Isabel Hernández, Caroline Mauvezin, Eduard Noguera, David Sala, Ana Sancho, Jessica Segalés, Sonia Veiga I Project Manager: Olga Bausà I Lab Technicians: Ignacio Castrillón, Juan Carlos Monasterio I Visiting Student: Guilherme Alves (Brazil)

Insulin resistance and new strategies for diabetes therapies


The development of novel drugs involves designing new molecules or modifying existing ones in order

to achieve a particular effect on cells and organisms. In the past, pharmaceutical science was a matter of trial-and-error finding a substance that helped ease the symptoms of a disease, and then using chemistry to extract and improve it. Often this was done in com-plete ignorance of how substances really worked. Today scientists have discovered what many drugs do – usually they bind to a particular protein or molecular complex and change its shape or chemistry, thereby affecting how it interacts with other molecules. A wide variety of

Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology Programme

techniques are now available to study and manipulate these interactions, as well as to find new ‘targets’ – proteins which play a key role in the development of a disease, and whose manipulation might restore cells to a healthy state.

The Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology Pro-gramme includes several types of expertise necessary to carry out this new approach to drug design. The goal is to identify targets, reveal their functions and the nature of their interactions with other molecules, and build or modify molecules that can influence their be-haviour.

Researchers in this Programme synthesise a large variety of bioactive compounds, with special focus on nucleic acids, peptides, proteins, peptidomimetics - molecules that resemble or imitate natural peptides - and other chemical compounds. For these purposes, the groups use innovative methods such as enantioselective synthesis, solid-phase synthesis of libraries of bioactive compounds and multi-component reactions.

The ultimate goal is to create substances that might be useful as drugs or tools to study biological systems, and work focuses on studying how drug candidates in-teract with their targets. The main tools used are NMR, computer studies, and mass spectrometry.


Research in Fernando Albericio’s lab is based on a ro-

bust chemical platform designed to address medicinal

chemistry projects with a special focus on cancer. The

methodological subprojects have the main objective of

feeding the chemistry platform, answering questions

and solving problems that arise in research. One of

the group’s main research topics is the total synthe-

sis of natural products from marine origin with new

structures and important bioactivities. Compounds with

peptidic or poliheterocyclic structures or a combina-

tion of peptide-heterocycle systems are part of the

group’s research efforts. Another relevant topic ad-

dressed is the optimisation of the compounds’ bioactiv-

ity or properties through the preparation of libraries

based on natural products.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Fernando Albericio I Research Associates: Mercedes Álvarez, Jan Spengler I Postdoctoral Fellows: Silvia Cavalli, Judit Tulla I PhD Students: Tommaso Cupido, Anna Iris Fernández-Llamazares, Peter Fransen, Yésica García, Xavier Just, Laia Miret, Marta Pelay, Elisabet Prats, Pau Ruiz, Lorena Simón, Ramon Subirós, Gemma Vilar, Rubí Zamudio I Research Assistants: Gerardo Acosta, Miriam Gongora, Marta Paradís I Visiting Students/Scientists: Carolina Adura (Chile), Simón Guerrero (Chile), Fanny Guzman (Chile)

Inventing new compounds

The successful development of the vast majority of sci-

entific projects depends on the capacity of researchers

to create small, artificial DNA or RNA molecules. Ramon

Eritja’s lab synthesizes these molecules from their subu-

nits. The group’s activities range from the preparation

of complex DNA and RNA molecules as potential drugs to

the use of DNA structures to construct nanoscale circuits.

Successful projects include the discovery of non-natural

bases that stabilise unusual structures of nucleic acids

that may be helpful to design a new class of drugs. A large

effort has also been made in the design of new RNA deriv-

atives to control gene expression. The group also pursues

the use of nucleic acid derivatives in the organisation of

molecules and materials on surfaces that may be of inter-

est for the development of new bioanalytical devices.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Ramon Eritja I Research Associates: Anna Aviñó, Carme Fàbrega I Postdoctoral Fellows: Ale-jandra Garibotti, Santiago Grijalvo, Sonia Pérez, Montserrat Terrazas I PhD Students: Margarita Alvira, Rubén Ferreira, Brendan Manning, San-dra Ocampo I Masters Student: María Tintoré

Building artificial DNAs and RNAs


The ultimate aim of ‘rational’ drug design is to study the

surface of any part of any protein and design a highly

efficient, selective ligand – a molecular ‘plug’ – that will

change the protein’s behaviour in a desired way. This is

still a dream, but Ernest Giralt’s lab is actively pursuing

it by addressing the principles that govern the way mol-

ecules recognise and bind to each other. The lab focuses

on several issues that have been difficult to resolve:

cellular uptake of foreign substances (drugs), ways to

break up clumps of proteins that form in Alzheimer’s

disease and several other neurodegenerative diseases,

and the delivery of drugs across the blood-brain barrier.

The group has been working to improve the methods

required to address these questions: obtaining structural

information from NMR, improvements in solid-phase

peptide synthesis (a way of artificially designing proteins

that do not require cells to produce the molecules) and

improving computer algorithms to assist drug discovery.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Ernest Giralt I Research Associates: Natàlia Carulla, Teresa Tarragó, Meritxell Teixidó I Postdoctoral Fellows: Miguel Moreno, Laura Nevola, Óscar Peña, Soledad Royo I PhD Students: Muriel Arimon, Xavier Arroyo, Andrey Dyachenko, Michael Goldflam, Anna Guimerais, Bernat Guixer, Nessim Kichik, Abraham López, Morteza Malakoutikhah, Irene Martin, Laura Mendieta, Roger Prades, Silvia Pujals, Rosa Pujol, Laia Sánchez, Bernat Serra I Research Assistant: Esther Zurita I Visiting Students: Vinicius Ilha (Brazil), Nathaly Segovia (Spain)

Designing and delivering drugs

Antoni Riera’s lab develops new synthetic methods re-

quired at various stages of drug development. The group

has a special focus on asymmetric synthesis. This line

of research is crucial because standard processes that

synthesise small molecules produce both enantiomers

(‘left- and right-handed’ versions – in other words, mol-

ecules that have the same constitution but are mirror

images of each other). The reactions of biological mol-

ecules to the two types of isomers may differ greatly, so

it is crucial to produce and purify only the desired ver-

sion. Efforts are also devoted to finding ways to scale up

synthetic processes of compounds of therapeutic inter-

est, and helping to prepare chemical libraries that can

be used for biological screening.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Antoni Riera I Research Associate: Xavier Verdaguer I Postdoctoral Fellow: Catalina Ferrer I PhD Students: Nuria Aiguabella, Edgar Cristóbal, Sean Doran, Yi Ning Ji, Thierry León, Pablo Martín, María Moreno, Marc Revés, Ana María Vázquez I Lab Technician: Ferran Santacana I Visiting Scientist: Jean-Claude Kizirian (France)

Developing synthetic methods for bioactive compounds


The preparation of new chemical entities is the first and

perhaps the most important step in the drug discovery

process. Màrius Rubiralta’s lab works on the develop-

ment of technologies aimed to obtain key bioactive

compounds in a pure form. The group develops synthetic

procedures to achieve new peptide-like molecules or

heterocyclic-containing compounds, structures frequent-

ly found in drugs. The group is involved in the descrip-

tion of new multicomponent reactions based on hetero-

cycles, and uses some of the synthetic constructs as a

tool in the separation of enantiomers and other products

of high-added value by several chromatographic and

related technologies. The lab also tackles fundamental

procedures and methodological research in this latter

field. This group left IRB Barcelona in December 2009.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Màrius Rubiralta I Research Associates: Anna Diez, Rodolfo Lavilla, Cristina Minguillón I Postdoctoral Fellows: Davide Bello, Rosario Ramon, Javier Ruiz I PhD Students: Jordi Mas, Anna Maria Pérez, Sara Preciado, Nuria Rubio, Raquel Sancho, Esther Vicente I Administrative Assistant: Montse Moreno

Looking for new bioactive molecules

The research carried out in Xavier Salvatella’s lab aims

to describe the motions of proteins and their involve-

ment in diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, systemic amy-

loidoses and transmissible spongiform encephalopathies

(Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease), where insoluble protein

aggregates accumulate in the tissue of patients. Specific

questions that the lab is addressing include character-

ising the structural properties of disordered proteins

involved in such diseases with innovative analytical

methods that use experimental results to bias computer

simulations, as well as establishing structure-toxicity

relationships in the aggregates that these proteins form

in the tissue of patients. A high-resolution description

of the events that lead to the onset of disease provides

opportunities for the development of novel therapeutic

approaches, which is the long-term goal of the group.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Xavier Salvatella I Postdoctoral Fellows: Santiago Esteban, Robert Fenwick, Maria Francesca Mossuto I PhD Student: Eva De Mol

Keeping a close eye on misbehaving proteins


Cancers arise when fundamental processes that con-trol the reproduction, differentiation, and behav-

iour of cells go astray. The Oncology Programme aims to improve the prognosis, prevention and treatment of cancer by studying the basic principles of development of this devastating disease.

Research groups in the Programme focus on diverse aspects of how tumours arise and develop. There is a special emphasis on the mechanisms that transform benign tumours into malignant ones, on the relationship

Oncology Programme

between stem cells and cancer, and on the identifica-tion of programmes that cause certain types of cancer cells to produce tissue-specific metastasis.

Groups in the Programme need strong ties to the clini-cal side of cancer research. Collaboration agreements with several oncology and pathology units of hospitals in the metropolitan area of Barcelona will facilitate the translation of basic research into clinically relevant di-agnostic and therapeutic tools.


Colorectal cancer is one of the leading causes of death

by cancer worldwide. Although most colorectal tumours

develop as benign lesions, a small proportion progress to

malignant stages because their cells have accumulated

mutations in genes that promote cancer or in genes

that normally suppress the development of tumours.

The final and deadliest step in the development of the

disease is the migration of colorectal cancer cells to

other organs, where they begin to build new tumours.

Eduard Batlle’s lab studies the initiation of colorectal

cancer and its progression from the early stages to the

formation of aggressive tumours. They make use of cell

and animal models that mimic the human version of this

devastating disease. The ultimate goal is to obtain infor-

mation that permits the design of new therapeutic and

diagnostic tools. Elena Sancho’s research group merged

with Eduard Batlle’s group in 2009.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Eduard Batlle I Research Associate: Elena Sancho I Postdoctoral Fellows: Alexandre Calon, Carme Cortina, Peter Jung, Anna Merlos, Annie Rodolosse, Guiomar Solanas I PhD Students: Francisco Barriga, Elisa Espinet, Gavin Whissell I Research Assistants: Sergio Palomo, Nerea Peiró I Lab Technicians: Javier Hernando, Marta Sevillano

The stages of colorectal cancer


Intricate signalling networks within cells control their

division, differentiation, movement, organisation and

death. Cancer cells disobey these signals during tumour

progression and metastasis, which is the final step in 90%

of all fatal cancers. The main interest of MetLab, led by

Roger Gomis, is to identify sets of genes and their func-

tions whose abuse by tumour cells make them instruments

for metastasis. By means of gene activation or inactivation

the group functionally validates pro-metastatic gene can-

didates. Some of their candidate genes have recently been

shown to be affected in tumour samples from patients. By

studying how combinations of biological changes facilitate

vital organ invasion by metastatic cells, the MetLab will be

able to efficiently tackle the disease by using drug combi-

nations against the putative therapeutic targets.

Research Group Members I MetLab Managing Director: Roger Gomis I IRB Barcelona Adjunct Director: Joan Massagué I Research Associate: Mònica Morales I PhD Students: Anna Arnal, Milica Pavlovic, Maria Tarragona I Lab Technician: Esther Fernández I Lab Manager: Marc Guiu I Visiting Scientists: Xabier Adrian García, Cristina Nadal (members of the Institut d’Investigacions Sanitàries IDIBAPS-Hospital Clínic/IRB Barcelona)

Tumoural Metastasis Laboratory (MetLab)

The integrity of the genome is threatened by diverse types

of DNA damage. Detection of DNA lesions activates the DNA

damage response (DDR), triggering signal transduction cas-

cades that alter cell behaviour to promote genome stabil-

ity. The DDR prevents DNA damage from being passed on to

daughter cells and is known to play roles in tumour suppres-

sion. Research in Travis Stracker’s lab focuses on understand-

ing the cellular DDR and its roles in safeguarding health. Ge-

nome instability and a defective DDR are a hallmark of can-

cer cells and can cause predisposition to cancers and other

debilitating pathologies. Detection of DNA damage leads to

changes in cell behaviour, including cell cycle checkpoint ar-

rest and in some cases the activation of cell death pathways.

The group is investigating the signalling pathways that con-

trol these responses to understand their role in tumour sup-

pression and to identify ways to manipulate them for clinical

applications. This group joined IRB Barcelona in May 2009.

Research Group Members I Group Leader: Travis Stracker I Postdoctoral Fellow: Maria Ángeles Tapia I PhD Students: Helena González, Katrin Rein, Irena Stevanovic I Research Assistant: Suvi Aivio

The DNA damage response, genome instability and cancer


The research carried out at IRB Barcelona is sup-ported by a wide range of Core Facilities that

provide technical assistance as well as access to cutting-edge biomedical resources, instrumentation and services aimed to accelerate scientific results and conclusions.

IRB Barcelona Core Facilities are equipped with the latest state-of-the-art tools for research, and offer an extensive number of services and techniques in ad-vanced digital microscopy, biostatistics, bioinformatics,

Core Facilities

functional genomics, mass spectrometry, protein ex-pression and mouse models of disease.

Services provided to IRB Barcelona researchers in-clude cutting-edge genomic techniques to interrogate or alter genes on a genome-wide level, a complete range of state-of-the-art light microscopy imaging sys-tems and techniques to assist researchers with their image processing, data interpretation, and presentation needs, spectrometric techniques to identify a broad range of biological species, software tools to facili-tate the interpretation of experimental results, high-throughput protein expression activities to run many parallel variations of an experiment, and development and production of genetically modified mice for re-search purposes.

These shared core facilities are strategically located in the Barcelona Science Park to ensure research syn-ergies and efficiency. In addition to the core facilities run by IRB Barcelona, research at the Institute is also supported by platforms and facilities of the Barcelona Science Park, as well as technical services of the Uni-versity of Barcelona.


The Advanced Digital Microscopy (ADM) Core Facility offers

access and support to state-of-the-art instruments, from

automatic spectral confocal microscopy to emerging tech-

niques for cell manipulation and imaging. The ADM offers a

wide range of technologies required to perform all the steps

of digital imaging, including sample preparation, image

acquisition, analysis and interpretation. Optical sectioning

in fluorescence is available with spectral confocal, spinning

disk and multiphoton microscope systems, together with

FRAP and FRET modules. Other specific techniques are being

developed for wide field inverted microscopes, such as TIRF,

laser nanosurgery, microinjection and automatic widefield

fluorescence microscopy. The ADM develops instruments

in close collaboration with IRB Barcelona research groups.

These include combined widefield FRAP, laser surgery and

photoactivation, or lightsheet fluorescence microscopy.

Core Facility Members I Facility Manager: Julien Colombelli I Research Officers: Lídia Bardia, Anna Lladó

Beyond the limits of conventional light microscopy

Nowadays researchers face not only the challenge of obtain-

ing relevant scientific data, but also of extracting valuable

information from them. Statistics is the science that trans-

forms data into information. Founded on probability theory,

it provides a scientifically sound framework to test hypoth-

eses and to learn about the systems and processes that

generate biomedical data. The experimental design theory

also guides researchers as to the best way to conduct ex-

periments. The Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Unit assists

scientists in the design and analysis of biomedical experi-

ments through cutting-edge software tools and innovative

methodology. The unit is committed to offering IRB Barce-

lona research groups a competitive advantage by develop-

ing tailored solutions to specific problems. These solutions,

which include methodological and software development,

are aimed at improving the speed and quality of research.

Unit Members I Facility Manager: David Rossell I Research Officer: Evarist Planet

Turning data into information


During the last decade, molecular biology has developed

from a gene-by-gene analysis into a more comprehensive ap-

proach to study regulatory networks involving from dozens to

hundreds of interacting partners. For successful performance

in this field, researchers require an increasing number of

tools to analyse or alter genes on a genome-wide level. The

Functional Genomics Core Facility provides state-of-the-art

genomic resources for the IRB Barcelona research community

and for external organisations. These tools fall into two cat-

egories: knockdown of gene expression by shRNAs, and ge-

nome wide analysis of transcription, DNA polymorphisms and

chromatin immunoprecipitation. The facility provides a com-

plete service for these analytical methods, including initial

consultation, quality control of starting material, sample and

array processing, initial data analysis, data interpretation,

and validation by real-time-PCR.

Core Facility Members I Facility Manager: Herbert Auer I Senior Research Officers: Eva González, Silvia Rodríguez

Studying the entire genome in a single experiment

Mass spectrometry has become one of the most important

tools in biochemical sciences and has a broad application

domain, ranging from small molecule analysis to protein

characterisation. Because of this versatility, mass spectrome-

try is the technology many scientists are turning to. The Mass

Spectrometry Core Facility provides modern chromatographic

and spectrometric tools for the identification and charac-

terisation of a broad range of biological species. The facility

has implemented intact protein analysis for the complete

characterisation of these molecules, and is working on the

development of bottom-up proteomic techniques for protein

quantitation and determination of post-translational modi-

fications. The facility is using novel ion mobility-MS coupling

to study the macromolecular structure and conformation of

proteins and nucleic acids and their complexes.

Core Facility Members I Acting Facility Manager: Marta Vilaseca I Senior Research Officer: Claudio Diema I Research Officer: Nuria Omeñaca

New lights in mass spectrometry


Genetically altered mice represent one of the most power-

ful models of human disease and development. The purpose

of the Mouse Mutant Core Facility is to facilitate access to

this technology. This may entail obtaining pre-generated

mice, modified embryonic stem (ES) cells, gene targeting

vectors from various public resources or the generation of de

novo models. The facility aims to provide a full ‘concept to

mouse’ service and is involved in all stages of development

and production of genetically modified mice, from assistance

with design and construction of the transgene or gene-tar-

geting vector, and production of genetically modified mouse

ES cells, through to injection of purified DNA or ES cells into

pre-implantation embryos. An important aspect of the work

performed by this service is the adaptation and improvement

of current technologies to both increase the efficiency of

production and to provide more sophisticated models.

Genetically modified mice as research tools

Traditionally researchers tackle a particular problem with

a protein in an iterative process of trial and re-design that

can potentially be time-consuming and costly. The Protein

Expression Core Facility concentrates on delivering high-

throughput activities where many variations of an experi-

ment (eg, truncations or mutations of proteins) are run in

parallel. This capacity to perform large numbers (generally

up to 96) of experimental variations on a theme in parallel

can significantly decrease the time taken to solve a par-

ticular protein-related problem, thus bringing experiments

to faster conclusions and, more importantly, leading to

rapid publication of data. In addition to saving time, high-

throughput methods can significantly reduce project and

laboratory costs.

Core Facility Members I Facility Manager: Nick Berrow I Senior Research Officer: Raquel García I Technical Officer: Mª Carmen Romero

Solving protein challenges the high-throughput way


Although metastasis has been considered a major health problem for centuries, the breakthroughs made

with respect to its genetic determination, its molecular mechanisms and specific treatments have been minimal. Conceptual and technological advances that have arisen in recent years, however, now offer an unprecedented oppor-tunity to tackle this devastating process.

In an effort to develop a new strategy against metastasis, IRB Barcelona officially launched the Metastasis Research Centre (MetCentre) in July 2009, a new initiative aimed to channel resources and research efforts into the causes, mechanisms and treatment of metastasis.

MetCentre brings together basic research groups from IRB Barcelona and clinical and translational groups from hospitals and technology platforms in the city, with the aim to perform joint investigation on metastasis. The funding available to MetCentre is devoted exclusively to metastasis research.

The objectives of MetCentre are to implement and de-velop multidisciplinary protocols and technology to identify genes and functions of clinical relevance for cancer and metastasis; to establish a framework or reference to chan-nel all efforts related to metastasis from a transversal and translational perspective; and to contribute to the design of new protocols for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment

MetCentre: A new collaborative metastasis research centre

of metastasis. The research focuses on the study of the overall metastatic process as well as its individual compo-nents: tumour angiogenesis, the progenitor cells that derive from bone marrow, cell motility and adhesion, interactions with the microenvironment of the tumour, and stem cells.

The convergence of multidisciplinary disciplines at IRB Barcelona, organised into five research programmes on Cell and Developmental Biology, Structural and Computational Biology, Molecular Medicine, Oncology and Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, provide an ideal hotbed from which to launch multidisciplinary projects aimed to tackle the underlying causes of metastasis.

(From left to right) IRB Barcelona director Joan J Guinovart, the President of the Catalan Government José Montilla and IRB Bar-celona adjunct director Joan Massagué during the official presen-tation of MetCentre in July 2009.


Facts and FiguresBoard of Trustees

Executive Board

External Advisory Board

Funding Sources

Scientific Output Summary

Academic Training

Technology Transfer Activities

Barcelona BioMed Seminars

IRB Barcelona Events

Outreach Activities

IRB Barcelona in the News

IRB Barcelona Organisation Chart

Directorate and Administration Staff

Human Resources Statistics

Researcher Affiliations

Barcelona Science Park

The IRB Barcelona Board of Trustees is the governing body of the Institute and is responsible for overseeing research activities, approving the operating funds and ensuring that the annual goals are met.

The Board is chaired by the Minister of the Department of Innovation, Universities and Business of the Government of Catalonia and is composed of eleven members.

Board of Trustees

PresidentHonorable Mr Josep Huguet Biosca

Minister of the Department of Innovation, Universities and Business, Government of Catalonia

First VicepresidentHonorable Ms Marina Geli Fàbrega

Minister of the Department of Health, Government of Catalonia

Second VicepresidentHis Excellency and Magnificent Dr Dídac Ramírez Sarrió

Rector of the University of Barcelona

MembersJoan Roca Acín

General Director for Research, Department of Innovation, Universities and Business, Government of Catalonia

Ramon Moreno AmichDirector of the Research Centres Programme (CERCA), Department of Innovation, Universities and Business, Government of Catalonia

Miquel Gómez ClarésStrategy and Coordination Secretary, Department of Health, Government of Catalonia

Carles Miquel CollellResponsible for the Research and Innovation Programme on Health Sciences, Department of Health, Government of Catalonia (since July 2009)

Marta Segura BonetGeneral Secretary, Department of Health, Government of Catalonia (until July 2009)

Maria Carme VerdaguerDirector of the Innovation Centre, ‘Bosch i Gimpera’ Foundation

Jordi Alberch VieVice-Rector for Research, University of Barcelona

Fernando Albericio PalomeraGeneral Director, Barcelona Science Park

Roser Artal RocafortManager, Barcelona Science Park


The Executive Board of IRB Barcelona oversees the Institute’s management performance, monitors the execution and progress of the functions delegated by the Board of Trustees and promotes scientific activities.

The Board is presided by the Secretary of Strategy and Coordination of the Department of Health of the Government of Catalonia.

Executive Board

PresidentMiquel Gómez Clarés

Secretary of Strategy and Coordination, Department of Health, Government of Catalonia

MembersJoan Roca Acín

General Director for Research, Department of Innovation, Universities and Business, Government of Catalonia (since April 2009)

Ramon Moreno AmichGeneral Director for Research, Department of Innovation, Universities and Business, Government of Catalonia (until April 2009)

Jordi Alberch VieVice-rector for Research, University of Barcelona

Other ParticipantsFernando Albericio Palomera

General Director, Barcelona Science Park

Joan J Guinovart CireraDirector, IRB Barcelona

Margarida Corominas BoschManaging Director, IRB Barcelona


The External Advisory Board plays a key role in providing strategic guidance and regularly assessing the scientific work carried out by IRB Barcelona researchers.

The Board is comprised of a panel of 15 renowned experts in the field of biomedicine.


MembersHans Clevers

The Netherlands Institute of Developmental Biology, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Michael Czech Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, USA

Christopher M Dobson Department of Chemistry and Physics, Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom

José Elguero Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Madrid, Spain

Samuel H Gellman Faculty of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

David M Glover Department of Genetics, Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Jan-Ake Gustafsson Center for Biotechnology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

Andrew Hamilton Department of Chemistry, Yale University, New Haven, USA

Robert Huber Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany

Tim Hunt Cancer Research UK, London, United Kingdom

Fotis C Kafatos Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

Bernd Meyer Institute for Organic Chemistry, Hamburg University, Hamburg, Germany

Charles J Sherr Department of Genetics and Tumor Cell Biology, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, USA

Bruce Spiegelman Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

Karen Vousden Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Glasgow, United Kingdom


IRB Barcelona received the majority of its core funding in 2009 from the Government of Catalonia through the Department of Innovation, Universities and Business and the Department of Health.

Additional funding was provided through competitive grants obtained from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Union, through FEDER funds and the Seventh Framework Programme, among others.

IRB Barcelona scientists also received financial support from the University of Barcelona, the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and several Spanish CIBER networks.

Funding Sources

Core Funding

Other Funding Sources


Scientific PublicationsIRB Barcelona researchers contributed to biomedical discoveries through a total of 171 scientific publications in 2009, 78 of which were a result of international collaborations with partners from industry and academia.

The list below is a selection of publications representative of the research carried out at IRB Barcelona during the year.

Scientific Output Summary

Aguado F, Díaz-Ruiz C, Parlato R, Martínez A, Carmona MA, Bleck-mann S, Ureña JM, Burgaya F, del Río JA, Schütz G and Soriano E. The CREB/CREM transcription factors negatively regulate early synaptogenesis and spontaneous network activity. J Neurosci, 29(2), 328-33 (2009)

Alarcón C, Zaromytidou AI, Xi Q, Gao S, Yu J, Fujisawa S, Barlas A, Miller AN, Manova-Todorova K, Macias MJ, Sapkota G, Pan D and Massagué J. Nuclear CDKs drive Smad transcriptional activation and turnover in BMP and TGF-beta pathways. Cell, 139(4), 757-69 (2009)

Baños RC, Vivero A, Aznar S, García J, Pons M, Madrid C and Juárez A. Differential regulation of horizontally acquired and core genome genes by the bacterial modulator H-NS. PLoS Genet, 5(6), e1000513 (2009)

Blobel J, Bernadó P, Svergun DI, Tauler R and Pons M. Low-resolution structures of transient protein-protein complexes using small-angle X-ray scattering. J Am Chem Soc, 131(12), 4378-86 (2009)

Boer DR, Ruíz-Masó JA, López-Blanco JR, Blanco AG, Vives-Llàcer M, Chacón P, Usón I, Gomis-Rüth FX, Espinosa M, Llorca O, del Solar G and Coll M. Plasmid replication initiator RepB forms a hexamer remi-niscent of ring helicases and has mobile nuclease domains. EMBO J, 28(11), 1666-78 (2009)

Carulla N, Zhou M, Arimon M, Gairí M, Giralt E, Robinson CV and Dobson CM. Experimental characterization of disordered and ordered aggregates populated during the process of amyloid fibril formation. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 106(19), 7828-33 (2009)

Casali A and Batlle E. Intestinal stem cells in mammals and Drosophi-la. Cell Stem Cell, 4(2), 124-27 (2009)

Chavey C, Lazennec G, Lagarrigue S, Clapé C, Iankova I, Teyssier J, Annicotte JS, Schmidt J, Mataki C, Yamamoto H, Sanches R, Guma A, Stich V, Vitkova M, Jardin-Watelet B, Renard E, Strieter R, Tuthill A, Hotamisligil GS, Vidal-Puig A, Zorzano A, Langin D and Fajas L. CXC ligand 5 is an adipose-tissue derived factor that links obesity to insu-lin resistance. Cell Metab, 9(4), 339-49 (2009)

Comellas G, Kaczmarska Z, Tarragó T, Teixidó M and Giralt E. Explo-ration of the one-bead one-compound methodology for the design of prolyl oligopeptidase substrates. PLoS One, 4(7), e6222 (2009)

De Las Heras JM, Martinho RG, Lehmann R and Casanova J. A func-tional antagonism between the pgc germline repressor and torso in the development of somatic cells. EMBO Rep, 10(9), 1059-65 (2009)

De Simone A, Richter B, Salvatella X and Vendruscolo M. Toward an accurate determination of free energy landscapes in solution states of proteins. J Am Chem Soc, 131(11), 3810-11 (2009)

Español Y, Thut D, Schneider A and De Pouplana LR. A mechanism for functional segregation of mitochondrial and cytosolic genetic codes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 106(46), 19420-25 (2009)

Faustino I, Aviño A, Marchán I, Luque FJ, Eritja R and Orozco M. Unique tautomeric and recognition properties of thioketothymines? J Am Chem Soc, 131(35), 12845-53 (2009)


Gao S, Alarcón C, Sapkota G, Rahman S, Chen PY, Goerner N, Macias MJ, Erdjument-Bromage H, Tempst P and Massagué J. Ubiquitin ligase Nedd4L targets activated Smad2/3 to limit TGF-beta signaling. Mol Cell, 36(3), 457-68 (2009)

García-Fandiño R, Granja JR, D’Abramo M and Orozco M. Theoretical characterization of the dynamical behavior and transport proper-ties of alpha,gamma-peptide nanotubes in solution. J Am Chem Soc, 131(43), 15678-86 (2009)

González C. Below the convergence. Curr Biol, 19(8), R313-14 (2009)

Guerrero-Valero M, Ferrer-Orta C, Querol-Audí J, Marin-Vicente C, Fita I, Gómez-Fernández JC, Verdaguer N and Corbalán-García S. Structural and mechanistic insights into the association of PKCalpha-C2 domain to PtdIns(4,5)P2. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 106(16), 6603-07 (2009)

Haren L, Stearns T and Lüders J. Plk1-dependent recruitment of gamma-tubulin complexes to mitotic centrosomes involves multiple PCM components. PLoS One, 4(6), e5976 (2009)

Isidro-Llobet A, Alvarez M and Albericio F. Amino acid-protecting groups. Chem Rev, 109(6), 2455-04 (2009)

Liesa M, Palacín M and Zorzano A. Mitochondrial dynamics in mam-malian health and disease. Physiol Rev, 89(3), 799-45 (2009)

Martínez AM, Schuettengruber B, Sakr S, Janic A, González C and Cavalli G. Polyhomeotic has a tumor suppressor activity medi-ated by repression of Notch signaling. Nat Genet, 41(10), 1076-82 (2009)

Martínez MT, Tseng YC, Ormategui N, Loinaz I, Eritja R and Bokor J. Label-free DNA biosensors based on functionalized carbon nanotube field effect transistors. Nano Lett, 9(2), 530-36 (2009)

Mauvezin C, Orpinell M, Francis VA, Mansilla F, Duran J, Ribas V, Palacín M, Boya P, Teleman AA and Zorzano A. The nuclear cofactor DOR regulates autophagy in mammalian and Drosophila cells. EMBO Rep, Epub Dec 4 (2009)

Querol-Audí J, Casañas A, Usón I, Luque D, Castón JR, Fita I and Verdaguer N. The mechanism of vault opening from the high resolu-tion structure of the N-terminal repeats of MVP. EMBO J, 28(21), 3450-57 (2009)

Reiriz C, Brea RJ, Arranz R, Carrascosa JL, Garibotti A, Manning B, Valpuesta JM, Eritja R, Castedo L and Granja JR. Alpha,gamma-peptide nanotube templating of one-dimensional parallel fullerene arrangements. J Am Chem Soc, 131(32), 11335-37 (2009)

Ruiz-Rodríguez J, Spengler J and Albericio F. Siamese depsipeptides: constrained bicyclic architectures. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl, 48(45), 8564-67 (2009)

Sancho R and Minguillón C. The chromatographic separation of enantiomers through nanoscale design. Chem Soc Rev, 38(3), 797-05 (2009)

Solon J, Kaya-Copur A, Colombelli J and Brunner D. Pulsed forces timed by a ratchet-like mechanism drive directed tissue movement during dorsal closure. Cell, 137(7), 1331-42 (2009)

Tajbakhsh S and González C. Biased segregation of DNA and cen-trosomes: moving together or drifting apart? Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol, 10(11), 804-10 (2009)

Torras-Llort M, Moreno-Moreno O and Azorín F. Focus on the centre: the role of chromatin on the regulation of centromere identity and function. EMBO J, 28(16), 2337-48 (2009)


Research CollaborationsDuring 2009, IRB Barcelona scientists participated in 189 external collaborations involving research partners from academia and industry. Research groups also continued to carry out joint work among the Institute’s research programmes through a further 43 internal collaborations.

Type of Collaborations

External Collaborations (International)

External Collaborations (National)

49%

35%

16% Internal Collaborations

External Collaborations by Sector

Universities

Research Institutes/Centres

Hospitals/Medical Centres47%

36%

8%9%

Industry


Research Projects and NetworksIRB Barcelona researchers participated in a total of 182 national and international research projects and networks in 2009.

Funding Sources

16%51%

2%

31%

Spanish Government

European Commission

Catalan Government (AGAUR)

Private Foundations/Industry

MICINN 41%ISCIII 9%MAES/AECI 1%

Research Areas

Oncology

19%26%

9%

20%

26%

Cell & Developmental Biology

Molecular Medicine

Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology

Structural &

Computational Biology


Research Grants, Networks and Personnel GrantsFunding obtained by IRB Barcelona researchers through grants, networks and personnel grants in 2009 amounted to €10,809,116. The list below comprises the institutions that contributed to funding through research grants.

Public Entities

Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN)

European Commission (EC)

Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII-MICINN)

AGAUR - Government of Catalonia

MAEC/AECI - Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO)

Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology & Higher Education

Foundations

‘Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria’ Foundation

‘Marcelino Botín’ Foundation

‘La Caixa’ Foundation

‘La Marató de TV3’ Foundation

Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC)

‘Genoma España’ Foundation

Funding Entities

European Science Foundation (ESF)

‘Caixa Catalunya Obra Social’

Spanish Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention (FIPSE)

Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

Industry

Almirall Laboratories

Enantia

Ferrer Group International

Noscira

GP Pharm

Brainco Biopharma

Palau Pharma

Ipsen Pharma

Hoffmann - La Roche

Genmedica Therapeutics

IRB Barcelona thanks the following private donors: Julià García Gutiérrez, Marta Luz Adalid, PRONOR SL

IRB Barcelona researchers also received financial support from the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), and as part of their participation in several research networks (CONSOLIDER, CIBERBBN, CIBERDEM, CIBERER, CIBERNED and RETIC).


IRB Barcelona provides PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from around the world with a unique international and multidisciplinary scientific environment.

More than 150 students are currently working on a PhD thesis at IRB Barcelona, 37% of whom are foreigners and 56% are women. Students generally spend up to four years at IRB Barcelona to complete their project and obtain their PhD degree from the university in which they are enrolled.

The postdoctoral community at IRB Barcelona has more than 90 members and is highly international, with 45% foreigners. Special initiatives and activities are being implemented so that postdoctoral fellows get the most from their stay at IRB Barcelona.

Academic Training

An exciting development for PhD activities was the intro-

duction in 2008 of the ”la Caixa”/IRB Barcelona Interna-

tional PhD Fellowship Programme, which provides substantial

funding to recruit talented students from across the world to

do their doctoral thesis work at IRB Barcelona. Ten doctoral

fellowships are granted each year to candidates selected from

an internationally competitive pool of applicants. In 2009, a

total of 270 applications were received.

During the spring of 2009, the Institute also launched the

IRB Barcelona PhD Fellowships Programme, a new predoctoral

call. Five fellowships were awarded as part of this scheme

which aims to serve as a ‘bridge’ to cover the funding gap that

students may experience between the time they receive their

degree and when they begin to receive an external grant.

IRB Barcelona continued to devote a considerable part of its

resources to PhD training in 2009. The Institute coordinated

a series of training and social activities aimed to provide PhD

students with high-level training and close mentoring, as well

as to foster collaborations between students and scientists

working in different research groups and programmes.

• PhD Introductory Course. Held at the beginning of Sep-

tember, the course gave PhD students a broad overview

of the programmes and core facilities at IRB Barcelona

and the Barcelona Science Park, and provided them

with useful information for their PhD training period.

• Lab Rotations. After the introductory course, students

participated in a series of lab rotations to experience

different research environments and experimental ap-

proaches, and to get to know the lab members of other

groups, thereby fostering possible future collaborations.

• Thesis Advisory Committee. Upon joining IRB Barce-

lona, all new PhD students are appointed a Thesis Advi-

sory Committee (TAC), comprised of both internal and

external advisors. The TAC meets at least once a year

and aims to mentor and guide students in all aspects

related to their theses.


• Footsteps Programme. Launched in 2009, this pro-

gramme seeks to pair new PhD students with PhD stu-

dent volunteers who have at least one year of experi-

ence at IRB Barcelona and act as guides or mentors.

• PhD Student Council. In December 2009, new members

were elected for the PhD Student Council. The coun-

cil’s mission is to organise student-run activities and

to serve as a communication link between the student

community and the Institute’s management.

In addition to their laboratory work, IRB Barcelona PhD

students are encouraged to participate in scientific seminars,

journal clubs, international conferences, outreach and edu-

cational activities, group and programme retreats, and other

social initiatives such as the monthly ‘cool-off’ sessions, the

IRB Barcelona football league and the hiking and running

clubs. Activities of interest this year included:

• PhD Student Seminar Series. Launched in September

2009, this new initiative is organised monthly by PhD

students. The seminars are always given by students and

address the whole IRB Barcelona student community.

• First IRB Barcelona PhD Student Symposium. On 2-3

November 2009, more than 100 participants and speak-

ers came from around the world to participate in ‘The

Architecture of Life’, the 1st IRB Barcelona PhD Student

Symposium. The event brought together young moti-

vated students and internationally renowned scientists

to exchange knowledge on the architecture of life, en-

courage multidisciplinary discussions, learn about new

fields, and create the basis for future collaborations.

The symposium was organised by members of the PhD

Student Symposium Organising Committee and was gen-

erously hosted at the CosmoCaixa museum in Barcelona.

PhD ThesesDuring 2009, a total of 24 PhD students successfully defended

their theses upon completion of their research project in an

IRB Barcelona laboratory.

Amphipathic proline-rich cell-penetrating peptides: from development to cargo transportSilvia Pujals, University of Barcelona (2009) Supervisor: Ernest Giralt

Caracterització funcional d’HP1c, la isoforma eucromàtica de les proteïnes HP1 de DrosophilaJoan Font, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisor: Ferran Azorín

(From left to right) PhD students in Antoni Riera’s group, the 1st IRB Barcelona PhD Student Symposium, and Minister Garmendia congratulating PhD

student Eva Novoa during the certificate award ceremony of the 2008-2009 ”la Caixa”/IRB Barcelona International PhD Programme, held in July 2009.


Characterization of the lysyl-tRNA synthetases from Trypanosoma bruceiYaiza Español, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisor: Lluís Ribas de Pouplana

Design and synthesis of peptides that neutralize bacterial endotoxins as therapeutic agents for the treatment of sepsisCarles Mas, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisor: Fernando Albericio

El pèptid beta-amiloide (Ab) associat a la malaltia d’Alzheimer: I. Efecte d’inhibidors peptídics en la citotoxicitat d’Ab; II. Reciclatge molecular en fibra d’AbLaia Sánchez, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisors: Ernest Giralt and Natàlia Carulla

Estudios de modelización molecular en soluciónIgnacio Soteras, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisor: Modesto Orozco

Estudios estructurales de las relaxasas involucradas en el proceso de conjugación bacterianaSilvia Russi, Autonomous University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisor: Miquel Coll

Functional and structural characterization of the L-arginine/ Agmatine exchanger AdiC. A model for APC transportersMercè Ratera, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisor: Manuel Palacín

Identification and functional properties of mitofusin 2 splice variantsDéborah P Naón, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisor: Antonio Zorzano

Metabolic impact of liver glycogen synthase activationSusana Ros, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisor: Joan J Guinovart

Nanotechnologies as drug delivery systemsLeticia Hosta, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisor: Fernando Albericio

N-Methyl phenylalanine-rich peptides as universal blood-brain barrier shuttlesMorteza Malakoutikhah, University of Barcelona (2009) Supervisors: Ernest Giralt and Meritxell Teixidó

NMR and SAXS studies of protein oligomerization. The effect of arginine and glutamic acid on proteins and their complexesJascha Blobel, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisors: Miquel Pons and Pau Bernadó

Nuevas estrategias para el desarrollo de ligandos peptídicos para la purificación de proteínas por cromatografía de

afinidad por medio de bibliotecas combinatoriasMariela M Marani, University of Buenos Aires (2009)Supervisors: Fernando Albericio and Osvaldo Cascone

Nuevas estrategias para la síntesis de depsipéptidosJavier Ruiz, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisors: Fernando Albericio and Jan Spengler

Papel de alex3 durante el desarrollo de la corteza cerebralGuillermo López, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisors: Eduardo Soriano and Ferran Burgaya

Protein structure and dynamics studied by molecular dynamics simulationsTim Meyer, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisor: Modesto Orozco

Regulación de las E3 ubiquitina ligasas Itch y WWP1 mediante sus dominios WWBegoña Morales, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisor: Maria J Macias

Resolució de l’estructura tridimensional de l’helicas hexamèrica DnaBRaquel Arribas, University of Girona (2009) Supervisor: Miquel Coll

Role of EphB receptors in intestinal epithelial cell positioning and colorectal cancer progressionCarme Cortina, Pompeu Fabra University (2009)Supervisor: Eduard Batlle

Síntesis de aminoácidos no naturales y aplicación a la síntesis de péptidos con interés farmacológico Rosario Ramón, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisor: Antoni Riera

Síntesi total de Lamel·larina D i anàlegs de cadena oberta: Aplicacions d’alliberament cel·lular i d’inhibició de topoisomerasesDaniel Pla, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisors: Fernando Albericio and Mercedes Álvarez

Structural studies on FF domains by NMR spectroscopyRomán Bonet, Autonomous University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisor: Maria J Macias

The role of TREX1 exonuclease processing of ssDNA and implications on macrophage activation María Serra, University of Barcelona (2009)Supervisors: Antonio Celada and Jorge Lloberas


Postdoctoral Training

Postdoctoral training received a boost in 2009 when four new

postdocs took up their positions as a result of an interdiscipli-

nary call launched in 2008. This initiative is aimed at fostering

collaborations within the different IRB Barcelona’s research

areas and successful candidates are now carrying out their

projects involving two of the Institute’s research programmes.

Postdoc opportunities will expand even further, as IRB Barce-

lona has been awarded a substantial grant from the EU’s Marie

Curie Programme. The grant totalling nearly one million euros

over the next four years will allow IRB Barcelona to recruit out-

standing international postdoctoral researchers. The call will

open soon and we expect to fill the first positions in 2011.

After devoting efforts to strengthening the PhD Programme,

in 2009 several new activities were introduced to help post-

doctoral fellows get the most from their stay at IRB Barce-

lona. The postdoctoral community formed a Postdoctoral

Council comprised of two representatives per programme.

The goal of the council is to gather feedback and liaise with

IRB Barcelona’s administration offices to organise activities

and networks of interest and value for the postdoctoral com-

munity.

One of the first activities for the newly created Postdoctoral

Council was the organisation of training initiatives to improve

and foster interaction and collaborations within the postdoctor-

al community. An example of this was the first edition of ‘Career

Progression in Science’ in December 2009, an event coorganised

with the Barcelona Science Park. The session provided young

researchers the opportunity to look beyond the bench, into new

and exciting career options.

59

The Department of Innovation and Strategic Projects was created in March 2009 to assist IRB Barcelona members in one of the strategic objectives of the Institute: the promotion of technology transfer. The aim of the department is to promote and collaborate in the identification, protection, development and commercialisation of discoveries and inventions with the goal of ensuring that research ultimately reaches and benefits society.

IRB Barcelona members were involved in research activities that resulted in the publication of five international patent applications in 2009 (see below); a further eight patent applications were filed during the year. The industrial interest of these scientific results illustrates the intense collaborations established between the members of the Institute and the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors.

Technology Transfer Activities

Process for the production of pramlintide Brunner A, Werbitzky O, Varray S, Quattrini F, Hermann H, Strong A, Albericio F, Tulla-Puche J and Garcia YPublication number/date: WO2009003666 (8/1/2009)

New polymers and their use as fluorescent labels Aymami J, Albericio F, Avino AM, Farrera J, Royo M and Navarro IPublication number/date: WO2009007397 (15/1/2009)

Improved antitumoral treatmentsHosta L, Pla M, Cruz LJ, Kogan M and Albericio FPublication number/date: WO2009095480 (6/8/2009)

Coupling agents for the synthesis of polypeptides and polynucleotidesAlbericio F, El-Faham A, Luxembourg Y and Ewenson APublication number/date: WO2009138985 (19/11/2009)

Salicylated conjugates useful for treating metabolic disordersGarcía-Vicente S, Marti L, Mayoux E, Mian A, Serrano M and Zorzano APublication number/date: WO2009138437 (19/11/2009)


The year 2009 brought together 139 leading experts from different areas of the biomedical sciences to present and discuss their latest research results with the local scientific community. The Barcelona BioMed Seminars, held at IRB Barcelona several times a week throughout the year, allowed researchers and the local community to learn about the latest developments in the life sciences.

Barcelona BioMed Seminars

14 January 2009 I Multifunctional RNA binding proteins: From splicing to miRNA processing and beyond. Sònia Guil, ICO-IDIBELL, Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain

16 January 2009 I Organization of the mitochondrial electron transport chain in dynamic superstructures. José Antonio Enríquez, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

21 January 2009 I Genetic mechanisms that determine morpho-genesis of the vertebrate nervous system. Elisa Martí, Institute for Molecular Biology of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

23 January 2009 I Integration of macrophage functions and im-mune homeostasis by LXR nuclear receptors. Antonio Castrillo, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain

28 January 2009 I Asymmetric segregation of age during cellular division in budding yeast. Zhanna Shcheprova, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

30 January 2009 I Snail controls bone length during fetal develop-ment and bone remodelling in the adult. Mª Ángela Nieto, Instituto de Neurociencias, Alicante, Spain

4 February 2009 I High-throughput screening for Sonic Hedgehog pathway inhibitors separating the wheat from the chaff. Tommaso Cupido, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

5 February 2009 I Scaffolding proteins at cell junctions, the maguks, as substrates for proteases during apoptosis. Sãska Ivano-va, Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

6 February 2009 I Oxygen sensing in health and disease. Julián Aragonés, Hospital de la Princesa, Autonomous University of Ma-drid, Madrid, Spain

11 February 2009 I Role of sub apical region proteins in tracheal development: Dissection of crumbs function. Annalisa Letizia, Institute for Molecular Biology of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain I Ap-plications of dynamic nuclear polarisation for biomolecular NMR. Cristina Gabellieri, IRB Barcelona–UB, Barcelona, Spain

13 February 2009 I The Dioxin Receptor AhR differentially modu-lates cell migration in mesenchymal vs epithelial cells: Has AhR a role in the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition? Pedro M Fernán-dez, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain

16 February 2009 I Role of the ubiquitin conjugation system in the control of mitochondrial integrity. Mariusz Karbowski, University of Maryland, Biotechnology Institute, Maryland, USA I Elucidating signaling events through mass spectrometry-based proteomics. Judit Villén, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

18 February 2009 I TGFbeta: From cytostasis to tumor progression and metastasis. Roger Gomis, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

19 February 2009 I A new pro-drug approach based in DPPIV/CD-26 enzyme. María José Camarasa, Instituto de Química Médica (CSIC), Madrid, Spain

20 February 2009 I Glimpses of biomolecular structure and dynam-ics through worldwide distributed computing: From protein folding to structure determination. Bojan Zagrovic, Mediterranean Insti-tute for Life Sciences, Split, Croatia

25 February 2009 I Ligand recognition of E3 ubiquitin ligases by means of WW domain interactions. Begonya Morales, IRB Barcelo-na, Barcelona, Spain I New model organisms for functional devel-opmental genetics. Michalis Averof, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Crete, Greece

2009

27 February 2009 I Synthesis of natural pyranonaphthoquinones and related N-containing antibiotics. Norbert De Kimpe, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

4 March 2009 I Insights into the opening of the Vault complex from the high-resolution structure of the seven N-terminal domains of MVP. Arnau Casañas, Institute for Molecular Biology of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain I Evi/Wntless reveals betacatenin dependent and independent processes during planarian regeneration. Teresa Adell, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

5 March 2009 I Different combinatorial methods to obtain ceramide and dihydroceramide analogues. Santiago Grijalvo, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

6 March 2009 I Molecular functions of A P-1 (Fos/Jun) in health and disease. Erwin Wagner, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, Madrid, Spain

11 March 2009 I Wnt signalling in intestinal stem cells and colorec-tal cancer. Eduard Batlle, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain I When DNA can’t find the way home: Crystal structure of MobMin complex with a 26-mer oligonucleotilde. Silvia Russi, IRB Barcelona–IBMB-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain

13 March 2009 I Protein complexes, cell organelle assembly and function in cell division pathways. Bodo Lange, Max-Planck Insti-tute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Germany

16 March 2009 I Ligand independent traffic of Notch mediates a tumour suppressor activity in Drosophila. Silvia Muñoz, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

18 March 2009 I The c-ABL/P73 signal transduction pathway in Alzheimer’s disease and Niemann Pick type C neurodegeneration. Alejandra Álvarez, Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile I Functional analysis of domain shuffling in the human parasite Entamoeba histolytica. Manuel Castro de Moura, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain I DNA Conformation and biomolecular motors: New nanomedicine research targets. Sonia Trigueros, Oxford Uni-versity, Oxford, UK

19 March 2009 I Waveguide Interrogated Optical Sensor (WIOS) for multianalyte screening of antibiotics in milk samples. Maria Pilar Marco, IQAC-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain

20 March 2009 I How voltage controls in conductions in ion chan-nels. Francisco Bezanilla, University of Chicago, Chicago, USA

25 March 2009 I Exploring novel crystallization methods for target: Ligand complexes. Celerino Abad Zapatero, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA

27 March 2009 I The protein meta-structure: A novel concept for protein interaction interference as a new route to drug develop-ment. Robert Konrat, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

1 April 2009 I Understanding human disease through protein inter-action networks. Andreas Zanzoni, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain I The visualisation of morphogen gradient formation in the devel-oping Zebrafish embryo. Steve Harvey, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

3 April 2009 I Proteomic analysis in cerebrospinal fluid in search for diagnosis biomarkers in Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis. Jacques Borg, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

8 April 2009 I A program to determine DNA crystal packing interac-tions and its applications. Iñaki Martínez, Institute for Molecular Biology of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

15 April 2009 I Metabolic remodelling of cancer cells: Structural and functional characterization of mitochondria in lung cancer. Nadège Bellance, Universiré Victor Segalen, Bordeaux, France I Directional migration of neural crest cells. Roberto Mayor, Univer-sity College London, London, UK

17 April 2009 I Discovery of small molecule ligands via virtual screening and NMR: Targeting human telomerase RNA. Thomas L James, University of California, San Francisco, USA

22 April 2009 I The megabladder mouse: A genetic model of con-genital obstructive nephropathy and bladder smooth muscle development. Kirk M McHugh, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA

23 April 2009 I Effective GDNF brain delivery using microspheres. A promising strategy for Parkinson’s disease. María Blanco-Prieto, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain

24 April 2009 I The interplay between TNF and glucocorticoid re-ceptor determines lethal outcome in inflammatory shock models in mice. Claude Libert, Department of Molecular Biomedical Re-search, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

29 April 2009 I Genome-wide RNAi screen identifies multiple regulators of HIF in Drosophila. Andres Dekanty, IRB Barcelona,


Barcelona, Spain I Novel applications for mass spectrometry. Marta Vilaseca, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

6 May 2009 I High-throughput screening for Sonic Hedgehog path-way inhibitors separating the wheat from the chaff. Tommaso Cupido, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

7 May 2009 I Development of a novel series of potent, selective and orally bioavailable HDAC inhibitors with anti-tumor activity. Laura Llauger, IRBM-Merck, Pomezia, Italy

8 May 2009 I Structural, biochemical, biological and technological studies on the insect virus TrV. Diego MA Guerin, CSIC-UPV/EHU, Leioa, Spain

13 May 2009 I Pushing structural details into the yeast interactome by high-throughput protein docking experiments. Roberto Mosca, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain I A developmentally regulated two-step process generates a non-centrosomal microtubule net-work in Drosophila trachea. Veronique Brodu, Institut Jacques Monod, CNRS, Paris, France

15 May 2009 I Molecular puzzles: Learning about function and mechanism of enzymes from their structures. Alexander Wlodawer, National Cancer Institute-Frederick, Frederick, USA

20 May 2009 I Cell competition, growth and size control in the Drosophila wing imaginal disc. Salvador C Herrera, CSIC-UAM, Madrid, Spain

21 May 2009 I Rational drug design for DNA repair mechanism as adjuvant in chemotherapy. Mª Carme Fàbrega, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

22 May 2009 I Of kinetochores and centrosomes: Mechanisms of mitotic spindle assembly. Alexey Khodjakov, University College London, London, UK

26 May 2009 I Functions of the proteasome: From protein degrada-tion and immune surveillance to cancer therapy. Alfred Goldberg, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

27 May 2009 I Zebrafish models for human disease: Skin and bones. Matthias Hammerschmidt, Cologne University, Cologne, Germany

28 May 2009 I Forces for cell sheet morphogenesis: Drosophila’s dorsal closure as a model system. Dan Kiehart, Duke University, Durham, USA

29 May 2009 I Microtubule kinetochore attachment and the regula-tion of mitotic progression. Claudio Sunkel, Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology, Porto, Portugal

3 June 2009 I A role of receptor Notch in ligand cis-inhibition in Drosophila. Isabelle Becam, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

4 June 2009 I Structural/function studies of α-synuclein and p75N-TR. Marçal Vilar, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, Madrid, Spain

5 June 2009 I Coupling of transcription and mRNA processing, a brief summary. Carles Suñé, Instituto de Parasitología y Biome-dicina ‘López Neira’, Granada, Spain

10 June 2009 I CD98hc: A dual function protein that mediates tumorigenesis? Chloé Feral, Université Nice Sophia Antipoli, Nice, France I Essential roles for microRNAs in stem-cell maintenance in the early mouse embryo. Tristan Rodríguez, Hammersmith Hospi-tal, London, UK

11 June 2009 I Single amino acid substitution in Plasmodium yoelii erythrocyte ligand determines its localization and controls parasite virulence. Osamu Kaneku, Institute of Tropical Medicine NEKKEN, Nagasaki, Japan

12 June 2009 I The dark side of tissue plasminogen activator: Role in pancreatic cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Pilar Navarro, Mu-nicipal Institute for Medical Research (IMIM), Barcelona, Spain

17 June 2009 I Polycomb proteins in development and disease. Giacomo Cavalli, Institut de Génétique Humaine, CNRS, Montpel-lier, France I Aptamer-facilitated biomarker discovery (AptaBiD) for cells. Sergey Krylov, York University & Centre for Research on Biomolecular Interactions, Toronto, Canada

18 June 2009 I Cyclic peptides with inhibitory activity on integrin-ligand binding. Soledad Royo, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

1 July 2009 I MicroRNAs and growth control. Héctor Herranz, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

3 July 2009 I Neurodegeneration and molecular therapy in Friedre-ich’s ataxia. Javier Díaz-Nido, Departamento de Biología Molecular & Centro de Biología Molecular ‘Severo Ochoa’, Madrid, Spain

8 July 2009 I Crystal structure of a prokaryotic lipoxygenase: An unpredicted domain and an unexpected substrate. Xavi Carpena, IRB Barcelona-IBMB-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain I Structural and func-tional studies of American conotoxins. Frank Mari, Florida Atlantic University, Florida, USA I A role for plant steroid hormones in stem cell and vascular patterning. Ana Caño, Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain

9 July 2009 I Centriole biogenesis and evolution. Mónica Betten-court, Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Lisbon, Portugal I Develop-ment of a fluorescent activity-based probe for profiling autotaxin in serum. Silvia Cavalli, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

10 July 2009 I Structural biological inorganic chemistry reveals mechanistic insights into the heme oxygenase catalysis. Masao Ikeda-Saito, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan I Novel mechanistic


and functional insights in the ubiquitin-like SUMO system. Stephan Muller, Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Munich, Germany

15 July 2009 I The oncogenic protein cortactin: A molecular switch between cellular and bacterial motility. Narcisa Martínez, Univer-sidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

16 July 2009 I Understanding amyloid beta-peptide aggregation. Muriel Arimon, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia-IRB Bar-celona, Barcelona, Spain I Signal integration by p38 MAPKs and CDKs. Angel R Nebreda, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, Madrid, Spain

17 July 2009 I Converting pluripotent stem cells to blood -HOXB4 mediated stem cell tuning. Hannes Klump, University Hospital Es-sen, Essen, Germany

22 July 2009 I Enjoying the sun: Mechanism of UV-damage detec-tion by the UVDDB complex. Nicolas Thoma, Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel, Switzerland

24 July 2009 I Novel antitumoral targets within the ERK pathway. Piero Crespo, Instituto de Biomedicina y Biotecnología de Cantab-ria, Santander, Spain

9 September 2009 I Patched degradation and its role in the inter-pretation of the Hedgehog morphogen gradient. Andreu Casali, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

10 September 2009 I Synthetic alpha-helix peptidomimetics for the inhibition of protein-protein interactions. Laura Nevola, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

14 September 2009 I Design and chemical synthesis of antiviral peptides targeted to structural and/or functional domains: As-sembly of Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis virus (IPNV) as a model system. Sergio H Marshall, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Val-paraiso, Valparaiso, Chile

15 September 2009 I What is chloride doing to the neurotransmitter transporters? Baruch Kanner, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jeru-salem, Israel I The GAIT system: A gatekeeper of inflammatory gene expression. Paul Fox, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland, USA

16 September 2009 I Metabolic consequences of lack of Caveolin-1 in mice. Manuel Fernández, Queensland University, Queensland, Australia

17 September 2009 I Molecules in small spaces. Agustí Lledó, Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, La Jolla, USA

23 September 2009 I Searching Drosophila for new genes involved in wound healing. Antonio Jacinto, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

25 September 2009 I Fluorescence microscopy meets structural bi-ology to study biomolecular complexes. Claus AM Siedel, Heinrich-Heine-Univesität, Düsseldorf, Germany

30 September 2009 I Bioinformatics analysis of imaginal discs regeneration. Enrique Blanco, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

5 October 2009 I Confident assignment of post-translational modifi-cations using top-down mass spectrometry. Julian Whitelegge, The NPI-Semel Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, USA

7 October 2009 I Polarity orientation memory in neuroblasts. Jens Januschke, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain I Modeling oncogene dependence in 3D cell culture systems and mice. Martin Jechlin-ger, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA

8 October 2009 I Protein dynamics from restrained ensemble mo-lecular simulations. Robert Fenwick, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

9 October 2009 I Dispersing a crowd: Signaling mechanisms con-trolling social behavior in bacteria. Holger Sondermann, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA

14 October 2009 I Aldo-keto reductases of mice ande men: Towards murine models for human cancers. Pedro Velica, Uni-versity of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK I p63 Mediates cellular senescence in cancer and aging. Bill Keyes, Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona, Spain I Functional characterization of VP3, the multitasking protein of Infectious Bursal Disease Virus. Idoia Busnadiego, CNB-CSIC, Madrid, Spain

16 October 2009 I Balancing self-renewal and differentiation: Regu-lation of symmetric and asymmetric division in the Drosophila nerv-ous system. Andrea Brand, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK

21 October 2009 I Study of the serylation system in Drosophila melanogaster. Tanit Guitart, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain I Crystal structures of avian reovirus and porcine adenovirus pro-teins. Pablo Guardado, University of de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

22 October 2009 I Coupling mitotic checkpoint control to aneu-ploidy and cancer. Rocío Sotillo, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA

23 October 2009 I Role of Parkin and Pink1 in mitochondrial qual-ity control. Richard J Youle, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, USA I The multifaceted role of circulating endothelial cells and progenitors in cancer. Francesco Bertolini, Istituto Europeo di Oncologia, Milan, Italy


26 October 2009 I Obesity-induced inflammation in T2D and CVD: Pathogenic mediator and pharmacologic target. Steven E Shoelson, University of Harvard, Boston, USA

28 October 2009 I The physical forces behind collective cell migra-tion: Where is the leader? Xavier Trepat, Institute for Bioengineer-ing of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain I Expression and purification trials of a membrane protease. Núria Cerdà, Institute for Molecu-lar Biology of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain I Structural, mechanis-tic and functional analysis of c-Abl/Bcr-Abl and its tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Oliver Hantschel, Research Center for Molecular Medi-cine, Vienna, Austria

30 October 2009 I Crystal structure of a 1 MDa protein complex essential for microtubule growth. Guillermo Montoya, Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, Madrid, Spain I Genetic code reprogramming for the ribosomal expression of natural product-like non-standard peptides. Hiroaki Suga, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

4 November 2009 I Effects of HDACIs in proliferation and apop-tosis of human leukaemia cell lines: Role of Annexin A1 and its membrane localization. Walter d’Acunto, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Salerno, Italy I Planarian stem cells: A proteomic screen-ing for novel neoblast genes. Gustavo Rodríguez, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain I Role of High Mobility Group (HMG), chromosomal proteins in cancer. MR Rajeswari, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

5 November 2009 I A CPEB-mediated translational control circuit regulates meiosis, mitosis and tumour development. Raúl Mén-dez, Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona, Spain I Towards a universal BBB-shuttle: Evaluation of a first library of potential peptidic BBB-shuttles using different in vitro tools. Roger Prades, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

6 November 2009 I Molecular regulation of glucose uptake and stor-age in muscle. Kei Sakamoto, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK

11 November 2009 I Electrophoresis NMR—a tool for the determi-nation of the charge of molecules. Ulrich Scheler, Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research, Dresden, Germany I SOCS36E specifically interferes with Sevenless RTK during Drosophila eye development. Isabel Almudí, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

13 November 2009 I Monolithic polymers: Present state-of-the-art and future trends. Frantisek Svec, EO Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, USA

16 November 2009 I A new approach to induce tissue specific loss-of-function in Drosophila melanogaster. Nirmal Lorensuhewa, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

18 November 2009 I Protein folding mechanisms reloaded. Athi Narayan, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain I Epigenetics speaks up for silent DNA. Miguel Peinado, Institute of Predictive and Person-alized Medicine of Cancer (IMPPC), Barcelona, Spain

20 November 2009 I Aicardi-Goutières syndrome and related phenotypes: Linking nucleic acid metabolism with autoimmunity. Yanick Crow, St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester, UK

25 November 2009 I Cell-ECM interactions mediated by integrins regulate the proliferation-to-differentiation switch. Mª Dolores Martín-Bermudo, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain I AFM studies on the mechanical resistance of proteins: effects of small ligand binding. Albert Escobedo, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

26 November 2009 I NMR in drug discovery: Finding new prolyl oligopeptidase inhibitors. Teresa Tarragó, IRB Barcelona, Barce-lona, Spain

27 November 2009 I Dynamic polymers for targeted RNA and DNA cancer therapy. Ernst Wagner, University Munich, Munich, Germany

2 December 2009 I Smad-dependent and independent signalling in osteoblast biology. Francesc Ventura, University of Barcelona, Bar-celona, Spain I Structural approaches to a system of mitochondrial proteins. Maria Solà, Institute for Molecular Biology of Barcelona (IBMB-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain

3 December 2009 I Probing protein folding on the ribosome using NMR spectroscopy. Shang-Te Danny Hsu, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK

4 December 2009 I Natural selection in the XXI century and the emergence of evolutionary systems biology. Jaume Betranpetit, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (UPF-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain

16 December 2009 I Physiological implications of the loss of TIF1a in nuclear receptor signalling control. Johan Tisserand, Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Illkirch, France I Novel peptide-mediated interactions derived from high-resolution 3-dimensional structures. Amelie Stein, IRB Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

18 December 2009 I Molecular and functional characterization of carnitine acyltransferases and its role against insulin resistance. Fausto Hegardt, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain


Barcelona BioMed ConferencesMore than 450 researchers from around the world travelled to Barcelona in 2009 to take part in events organised within the Barcelona BioMed Conference series. Now in its fourth year, the series has continued to gain international renown for bringing together leading experts to present and discuss the latest breakthroughs in several fields of the biomedical sciences in a highly focused, think-tank atmosphere. Organised by IRB Barcelona and made possible thanks to the BBVA Foundation, the 2009 lineup included top international speakers in chemistry, cell and developmental biology, oncology, genetics and proteomics. Barcelona BioMed Conferences take place at the Institut d’Estudis Catalans in downtown Barcelona.

IRB Barcelona Events

20-22 April 2009 I The DNA-Proteome: Recent Advances Towards Establishing the Protein-DNA Interaction SpaceOrganisers: Herbert Auer (IRB Barcelona) and Erich Grotewold (Ohio State University, USA)

14-16 September 2009 I Modelling Cancer in DrosophilaOrganisers: Cayetano González (IRB Barcelona) and Helena Richardson (Peter Mac Research, Melbourne, Australia)

26-28 October 2009 I Peptide Engineering: Therapeutic PeptidesFifth Peptide Engineering Meeting (PEM5)Organisers: Ernest Giralt (IRB Barcelona) and Claudio Toniolo (University of Padua, Italy)


Barcelona BioMed Forum11 November 2009 I Barcelona BioMed Forum on ‘Creativity, Science and Art’

The Barcelona BioMed Forum on ‘Creativity, Science and Art’, held on 11 November 2009, explored themes of nature and creativity within a scientific and artistic framework. A distinguished international panel of scientists and artists gathered to discuss questions ranging from such as what is science? What is nature? What is art? What do science and art have in common and how do they differ? What role does creativity play in both areas? Designed to be informative, entertaining and highly interactive, ‘Creativ-ity, Science and Art’ involved activities that ranged from lectures and debates to exhibitions and crea-tive sessions.

The forum featured an exhibition of a collection of works entitled ‘Paisajes Neuronales’ (Neuronal Land-scapes), provided generously on loan by ”La Caixa” Obra Social, and was complemented by contributions from members of the IRB Barcelona community. The forum was preceded by a one-day artist-in-residence programme where local artists were selected to join an IRB Barcelona laboratory and work with our sci-entists to get a first-hand look at some of the techniques and methodologies used in today’s biomedical research.

Barcelona BioMed WorkshopsThese activities provide an important training mechanism whereby scientists at all levels can keep abreast of the latest tools and techniques used in their fields. The workshops host expert speakers and trainers from basic research and industry who provide theoretical background and hands-on practical training for small groups of participants.

Topics cover a wide range of areas in basic and applied research. Barcelona BioMed Workshops organised in 2009 included:

19-20 November 2009 I Spine 2-Complexes Teach SG workshop: Advanced Strategies for the Expression of Proteins and Protein Complexes in YeastOrganisers: Miquel Coll (IRB-Barcelona & IBMB-CSIC), Maria Arme-nia Carrondo (ITQB, Oeiras, Portugal), Ma Cristina Vega (CIB-CSIC, Madrid), Albert Canals (IRB Barcelona & IBMB-CSIC)

14 December 2009 I Media Training for ScientistsPresented by Claire Ainsworth and Clare Wilson (SciConnect, UK)


1st IRB Barcelona PhD Student Symposium2-3 November 2009 I 1st IRB Barcelona PhD Student Symposium: ‘The Architecture of Life’

Organisers: IRB Barcelona PhD Student Symposium Committee

The IRB Barcelona PhD Symposium series seeks to bring together PhD students and other researchers from around the world for presentations and debate about important topics in the biomedical sci-ences. The first event in this series, ‘The Architecture of Life’, explored current research into how life is built, and topics ranged from DNA, RNA and proteins, all the way up to tissues and organism, in normal and diseases states. Eight internationally renowned speakers from different areas brought their perspectives and were joined by more than 100 participants, some of whom were invited to give short talks and present posters of their work. The conference also included a plenary discussion for all participants. ‘The Architecture of Life’ was generously hosted by CosmoCaixa, Barcelona.

MetCentre ActivitiesThe new IRB Barcelona initiative MetCentre, launched in July 2009 to create a multidisciplinary platform for metastasis research, held the following internal collaborative sessions throughout the year:

22 January 2009 I Cancer Research MeetingOrganisers: Instituto de Investigaciones Sanitarias Clínic-IDIBAPS & IRB Barcelona

26 March 2009 I Neuroscience Research MeetingOrganisers: Institut d’Investigacions Sanitàries Clínic-IDIBAPS & IRB Barcelona

6 April 2009 I Towards Gender BalanceOrganisers: IRB Barcelona and SET-Routes University Ambassador Programme (EMBL, EMBO, CERN)

18-19 June 2009 I Research on Metabolic, Hepatic and Digestive Diseases MeetingOrganisers: Institut d’Investigacions Sanitàries Clínic-IDIBAPS & IRB Barcelona

23-25 November 2009 I Expanding the Frontiers of Molecular Dynamics Simulations in BiologyOrganisers: IRB Barcelona & Barcelona Supercomputing Center

3 December 2009 I Career Progression in Science - Options Be-yond the BenchOrganisers: IRB Barcelona & Barcelona Science Park

9 December 2009 I Research on Infectious, Immunological Dis-eases and International Health MeetingOrganisers: Institut d’Investigacions Sanitàries Clínic-IDIBAPS & IRB Barcelona

9-11 December 2009 I Critical Assessment of PRedirect Interac-tion (CAPRI) 4th Evaluation MeetingOrganisers: IRB Barcelona & Barcelona Supercomputing Center

Collaborative EventsIn 2009, IRB Barcelona organised the following events in collaboration with other institutions:

27 October 2009 I Deconstructing MetastasisSpeaker: Joan Massagué, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (New York, USA)

23 December 2009 I Intestinal Stem Cell Genes in Colorectal Cancer Progression and RelapseSpeaker: Eduard Batlle, IRB Barcelona


During 2009, many IRB Barcelona scientists took part in a series of outreach activities organised by the Barcelona Science Park. The events were aimed at giving students a hands-on look at today’s cutting-edge research and to encourage them to take up careers in science.

Outreach Activities

Research! A series of weekly workshops for students and the general public

13 January-14 May I 3 November-17 December 2009IRB Barcelona participants: Muriel Arimó, Elisabeth Castellanos, Consol Farrera, Anna Guimerals, Ana Janic, Leire Mendizábal, Irene Martín, Miguel Moreno, Mónica Pascual, Maria Serra, Lorena Valverde and Esther Zurita

Topics: DNA analysis to track down a criminal, flies with cancer

Research in Primary SchoolsA bimonthly research activity to bring science closer to primary school students through active involvement in experiments

January-December 2009 IRB Barcelona participants: Carme Cortina and Elisa Espinet

Topics: Introduction to the scientific method, DNA extraction,stem cells, microscope analysis

Live Research FairA science fair to show the latest research taking place in Barcelona

15-16 April 2009IRB Barcelona participants: Noelia Camacho, Manuel Castro, Carme Cortina and Sergio Palomo

Topics: What is colon cancer and what can we do about it? How to find a new drug to fight parasites

Kids Day at IRB Barcelona An event organised by IRB Barcelona aimed to help children experience the wonder of science and become researchers for a day

29 June 2009 IRB Barcelona volunteers: Anna Adrover, Anna Arnal, Lydie Babin, Elisenda Buti, Jorge Domínguez, Meritxell Gavaldà, Anna

Guimerais, Xavier Just, Marta Llimargas, Laura Mendieta, Nuria Molist, Sara Preciado, Sonia Saborit, Manuela Sánchez, Sarah Sherwood, Eleonore Sorianello, Mónica Torras, Emma Veza, Esther Vicente and Marta Vilaseca

Spend the Summer at the Park!An internship programme for undergraduate students involving active participation in research projects at the PCB

1 July-31 September 2009IRB Barcelona participants (student tutors): Patrick Aloy, Antonio Celada, Albert Canals, Miquel Coll, Alfred Cortés, Ernest Giralt, Cristina Minguillón, Modesto Orozco, Miquel Pons, Lluis Ribas de Pouplana, Antoni Riera and Xavier Salvatella

Research in Secondary SchoolsA mentoring activity to assist secondary school students in their research projects

July 2009-March 2010 IRB Barcelona participants: Ana Janic, Thierry Leon, Irene Martín, Carles Martínez, Maria Moreno, Laura Nocito, Neus Rafel, Lídia Ruíz, Isabel Sáez, Pablo Sirkin, Jordi Vallès and Delia Zafra

Open Day: What is the Barcelona Science Park? What is research about?A one-day event to bring science closer to secondary school students

17, 19 and 24 of November 2009 IRB Barcelona participants: Carme Cortina and Elisa Espinet

Topics: RNA extraction, cell visualisation, in vitro cell culture, RNA analysis from tumoural cells, separation of benign and malignant tumoural cells


IRB Barcelona is featured regularly in Catalan, Spanish and International mass media. During 2009, IRB Barcelona activities appeared about 500 times in the media in the form of news articles, interviews and in-depth reports. IRB Barcelona researchers have also written a number of feature articles about their science.

IRB Barcelona in the News

23 January 2009 I Avui

The health section of the Cata-lan newspaper AVUI devoted a two-page article to two Euro-pean projects on malaria and diabetes awarded to IRB Barce-lona in the second call of the VII Framework Programme.

28 January 2009 I Expansión

The newspaper Expansión fea-tured IRB Barcelona adjunct di-rector Joan Massagué after hav-ing won the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the biomedicine category.

27 March 2009 I El Mundo

The newspaper El Mundo fea-tured IRB Barcelona scientist Antonio Zorzano in a two-page interview about the main objectives of the European project MITIN on diabetes, which he coordinates.

21 April 2009 I Diario Médico

Diario Médico highlighted the work on DNA repair carried out by researcher Travis Stracker, who joined IRB Barcelona in May 2009 to run the Genomic Instability and Cancer Laboratory.

7 May 2009 I Público

Público was one of the several Spanish newspapers to highlight a new research discovery by Joan Massagué published in Nature and linking breast cancer to brain metastasis.

23 March 2009 I TV3

The Catalan TV channel TV3 in-terviewed IRB Barcelona director Joan J Guinovart to get a global view of the reasons why Barce-lona is becoming an international hot spot in biomedical research.


9 May 2009 I El País

Researcher Herbert Auer, man-ager of the IRB Barcelona Func-tional Genomics Core Facility, published a two-page feature article in El País Salud about the Barcelona BioMed Conference ‘The DNA-Proteome’.

1 June 2009 I Correo Farmacéutico

Correo Farmacéutico was one of the several newspapers to report on Diomed, a new FP7 project coordinated by IRB Barcelona and aimed at finding new drugs against diabetes.

12 July 2009 I La Vanguardia

IRB Barcelona was highlighted in La Vanguardia as one of the top research centres in Catalo-nia. The article focused on the region’s investment efforts in biomedicine.


La Vanguardia published an in-depth article on the establish-ment of the MetCentre, a new initiative coordinated by Joan Massagué and launched by IRB Barcelona in July 2009 to unite efforts against cancer.

20 July 2009 I El País

Omnia Molecular, a spin-off company established by IRB Barcelona researcher Lluís Ri-bas de Pouplana, was featured in a special section of El País dedicated to highlight business-es that haven’t been affected by the financial crisis.


A one-page opinion article by IRB Barcelona director Joan J Guinovart focusing on the importance of investing in sci-ence in times of crisis in order to strengthen the country’s economy.

2 October 2009 I El Mundo

An in-depth interview with IRB Barcelona group leader Cayetano González about the benefits of using Drosophila melanogaster in biomedical research.

30 October 2009 I La Gaceta

IRB Barcelona group leader and programme coordinator Ernest Giralt was featured in La Gace-ta newspaper for his work and expertise on peptides and their potential in biomedicine.

3 November 2009 I El Periódico

The 1st IRB Barcelona PhD Stu-dent Symposium, ‘The Archi-tecture of Life’, was one of the highlights in the science section of the newspaper El Periódico. The symposium was held in Barcelona on 2-3 November.

21 December 2009 I Diario Médico

Diario Médico reported on a study undertaken by IRB Bar-celona researchers at the Gene Translation Laboratory, led by group leader Lluís Ribas de Pouplana. Details about this new tool were published in the Nucleic Acids Research journal.


IRB Barcelona Organisation Chart

Marco Milán, Miquel Coll, Antonio Zorzano, Ernest Giralt, Eduard Batlle

Executive Board

Board of Trustees

Structural & Computational BiologyPatrick Aloy, Miquel Coll, Ignasi Fita, Maria Macias, Modesto Orozco, Miquel Pons

Research ProgrammesCell & Developmental BiologyFerran Azorín, Jordi Casanova, Cayetano González, Jens Lüders, Marco Milán, Lluís Ribas de Pouplana, Eduardo Soriano

Molecular MedicineCarme Caelles, Antonio Celada, Joan J Guinovart, Manuel Palacín, Antonio Zorzano

Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology Fernando Albericio, Ramon Eritja, Ernest Giralt, Antoni Riera, Màrius Rubiralta (until December 2009), Xavier Salvatella

OncologyEduard Batlle, MetLab, Elena Sancho (until October 2009), Travis Stracker

Core FacilitiesAdvanced Digital Microscopy Julien Colombelli

Biostatistics/Bionformatics David Rossell

Functional Genomics Herbert Auer

Mass Spectrometry Marta Vilaseca

Mouse Mutant Protein Expression Nick Berrow

Administration


Scientific structureAdministrative structure supporting scientific activities

Director Joan J Guinovart

Adjunct Director Joan Massagué Managing Director

Margarida Corominas

Internal Scientific Commitee

Research & Academic Administration Margarita Navia

Human Resources Sylvia Martínez

Finance Alexandre Puerto

Purchasing Yolanda Olmos

Communications & External Relations Sarah Sherwood

Information Technology ServicesFrancisco Lozano

Innovation & Strategic ProjectsJorge Domínguez

Joan J Guinovart Director

Joan Massagué Adjunct Director

Margarida Corominas Managing Director

Directorate & Administration Staff

IRB Barcelona Directorate

Marco Milán Coordinator, Cell & Developmental Biology

Miquel Coll Coordinator, Structural & Computational Biology

Antonio Zorzano Coordinator, Molecular Medicine

Ernest Giralt Coordinator, Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology

Eduard Batlle Coordinator, Oncology

Research Programmes

Research & Academic Administration: Margarita Navia (Head), Clara Caminal (Academic Officer), Sònia Saborit (Project Officer), Adriana

Grosu (European Project Manager), Esther Cid (Research & Academic Administration Assistant) I Human Resources: Sylvia Martínez (Head),

Silvia Aguadé (Personnel Management Officer), Maria Rovira (Human Resources Officer), Cristina Méndez (Human Resources Assistant, since

July 2009), Alba Cima (Human Resources Assistant, until July 2009) I Finance: Alex Puerto (Head), Thais Raventós (Finance Controller, since

September 2009), José Luís Fernández (Finance Controller, until September 2009), Elisava de la Hoz (Accounting Officer), Dan Maldonado

(Accounting Officer), Stel·la Serra (Project Officer), Cristina Coletas (Finance Assistant) I Purchasing: Yolanda Olmos (Head), Xavier López

(Purchasing Officer), Sara López (Buyer), Eric González (Buyer) I Communications & External Relations: Sarah Sherwood (Head), Sònia

Armengou (Media Relations Officer), Anna Alsina (Information & Publications Officer), Meritxell Gavaldà (Conference & Event Coordinator),

Tanya Yates (Editorial Support) I Information Technology Services: Francisco Lozano (Head), Roberto Bartolomé (Systems Architect),

David Villanueva (Systems Administrator), Jesús Sánchez (Systems Administrator), Rodolfo Scorians (Service Desk Technician) I Innovation & Strategic Projects: Jorge Domínguez (Head), Cristina Horcajada (Technology Transfer Officer) I Programme Secretaries: Martha

Brigg (Cell & Developmental Biology), Vanessa Llobet (Structural & Computational Biology), Natàlia Molner (Molecular Medicine), Eva Poca

(Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology), Sara Martorell (Oncology)

Administration


Human Resources Statistics

Laboratories 387

Core Facilities 18

Administration 34

Total 439

IRB Barcelona Members

22%

26% 7%

20%20%

Cell & Developmental Biology

Molecular Medicine

Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology

Structural & Computational Biology

Scientific Staff by Research Programme

Oncology

5% Core Facilities

Scientific Staff by Professional Category

41%

7%

10%

17%

Technicians

PhD Students

Research AssociatesPostdoctoral Fellows

Group Leaders

25%


The IRB Barcelona community includes researchers who are hired exclusively by the Institute and scientists who are also affiliated to other institutions, including the University of Barcelona (UB), the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Below is a list of the IRB Barcelona researchers with double affiliations.

Researcher Affiliations

Group LeadersFernando Albericio Carme Caelles Antonio Celada Ernest Giralt Joan J Guinovart Modesto Orozco Manuel Palacín Miquel Pons Antoni Riera Màrius Rubiralta (until December 2009) Eduardo Soriano Antonio Zorzano

University of Barcelona (UB)

Other ResearchersMercédez Álvarez Ferran Burgaya Anna Diez (until December 2009) Annabel Fernández (until March 2009) Josep Gelpí Rodolfo Lavilla (until December 2009) Jorge Lloberas Albert Martínez Cristina Minguillón (until December 2009) Jesús Ureña Xavier Verdaguer

Group LeadersPatrick Aloy Eduard Batlle Roger Gomis (MetLab Managing Director) Cayetano González Maria Macias Marco Milán Lluís Ribas de Pouplana Xavier Salvatella

Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA)

Other ResearchersNatàlia Carulla Alfred Cortés José Luís Vázquez-Ibar


Group LeadersFerran Azorín Jordi Casanova Miquel Coll Ramon Eritja Ignasi Fita

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)

Other ResearchersAnna Maria Avinyó Jordi Bernués Maria Lluïsa Espinàs Xavier Franch Marc Furriols Maria Solà Cristina Vega


During 2009, the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) fulfilled its objectives through implementing several activities

in the fields of research, innovation, and the dissemination of science. The PCB also grew significantly with respect to surface area, infrastructures, and the number of people, companies and organisations working there.

Following its expansion plan, which is expected to end in 2011, the PCB completed the remodelling work on the Towers R+D+I, thus bringing an additional 10,000m2 into use. During the first semester of 2009, the new spaces in the Towers R+D+I were taken up, reaching 97% occupation. Furthermore, construction work continued in the second phase of the Cluster building, the Energies building and the Services building; this work is expected to be completed during 2010.

In addition to this growth, one of the highlights was the installation of the ‘Centre Nacional d’Anàlisi Genòmica’ (CNAG) in the PCB. In 2009, the Spanish Government com-mitted to creating a scientific-technological centre for large-scale genome sequencing. With this objective, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Catalan gov-ernment and the Barcelona Science Park Foundation signed a collaboration agreement to set up this sequencing centre in Barcelona. This initiative seeks to cover the increasing

demand for mass sequencing in relation to genomics re-search projects of great importance, thus guaranteeing the participation of Spain in the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and assuring Spain’s competitiveness in the strategic field of genomics, as well as in other sectors of significant economic relevance, such as biomedicine, agriculture and food biotechnology, renewable energies and environmental bioengineering.

The first phase of this project consists of setting up CNAG and includes the development of infrastructures, the purchase of equipment, and the recruitment of personnel. It also encompasses the execution of a pilot study related to the sequencing of tumour samples as part of Spain’s par-ticipation in the ICGC. CNAG will then be consolidated as a scientific-technological facility through the award of com-petitive funding, which will then allow the centre to extend its activities to a wide range of R+D+I projects of strategic interest.

In the field of innovation, special mention is given to the growth of the PCB-Santander Bioincubator, which has gone from hosting 10 companies at its start in 2007 to 16 companies at the end of 2009.

Barcelona Science Park

Founded by

With the collaboration of

IRB Barcelona

Barcelona Science Park Baldiri Reixac 10 08028 Barcelona Spain

Tel: +34 93 402 0250 Fax: +34 93 403 7114

[email protected] www.irbbarcelona.org

2009 IRB Barcelona Annual Report

Documents

Transcript of 2009 IRB Barcelona Annual Report