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In Vivo issue 26 april 2014 IRB BarcelonaTRANSCRIPT
NEWSLETTER OF THE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN BIOMEDICINE
in vivoApril 2014 | Issue 26
p4 Researching rare diseases
High school prize winners
A summer among test tubesp6 p8p6
Postdocs have their day
New student council-ers
Postdoctoral scientists from IRB Barcelona
and beyond gathered on 3 April for the first IRB
Barcelona Postdoc Day. The event, organized by
the Postdoc Council, provided a forum for young
scientists to showcase their science and exchange
tips on how to make the most of this critical time
in their careers. Experts like Sir Tim Hunt were
on hand to share their experience and advice,
and activities included talks covering a range of
disciplines, poster sessions and more. On page 2.
Angel R. Nebreda and his team have iden-
tified a dual role of the p38 MAPK protein in
colon cancer. On one hand, p38 is important to
effectively maintain the epithelial barrier that
protects the intestine against toxic agents, thus
helping limit tumour development. On the other,
once a tumour has formed, p38 is required for the
survival and proliferation of colon cancer cells,
thus favouring tumour growth.
The study appears in April in Cancer Cell, a
journal with one of the highest impact factors in
cancer research. Find out more on page 3.
The wicked ways of p38
When Catalan wine expert Xavier Ayala
was a child, he lost his father to lung cancer
that had spread to his bones. As a tribute to
his dad, Xavier has launched a new initiative
called Vi per Vida (Wine for Life) that aims to
bring people together for a celebration about
what he knows best, wine. At the same time,
he plans to raise funds for important research
being done in the fight against cancer and
metastasis at institutes like IRB Barcelona.
Vi per Vida will organize regular wine
tasting events across Catalonia throughout
the year. The first session is set to take place
on 31 May 2014, to coincide with World No Tobacco Day, in Xavier’s hometown of
Mollerussa (Lleida). Read more on page 5.
Raise your glass for ’Vi Per Vida’
Calling all chemical biologists!Looking for a great opportunity to set up your lab in a thriving,
multidisciplinary environment? IRB Barcelona invites applications
from outstanding investigators, both junior and senior, for
independent Group Leader positions in the Chemistry and
Molecular Pharmacology Programme. Candidates will be expected
to develop cutting-edge interdisciplinary research in the field of
chemical biology. Details at www.irbbarcelona.org.
Young scientists celebrate the first IRB Barcelona Postdoc Day on 3 April. (Photos: O. Martorell)
in vivo April 2014 | Issue 26p2
It's absolutely critical to develop your skills to give a great talk.❞
Sir Tim Hunt,Nobel Prize Laureate
❝
Great science, great advice at 1st IRB Barcelona Postdoc Day
Postdoc Day is a day of science from many
fields and disciplines. Now that you have re-
tired, do you find yourself freer to enjoy science
more and attend lectures from fields different to
your own?
I always think of science as entertainment.
There is so much to be learned. I think the key
to enjoying them is making an effort to under-
stand. During my early days in Cambridge, I
remember Francis Crick would go to lots of
seminars. He’d show up, whether he under-
stood the topic or not, and ask lots of ques-
tions. That was his way of learning, and that
was a great lesson for me. It’s easy to get the
wrong end of the stick in something that is new
for you. Asking questions helps tremendously.
Now that said, not all of the talks I hear are
necessarily entertaining! Here’s the advice: It’s
absolutely critical to develop your skills to give
a great talk, so that you are understood. We of-
ten find no difficulty in understanding our own
stuff. The key is spending the time to learn how
to communicate so that others do, too.
So, how you say it is as important as what you
say?
In many ways, yes. There are lots of things
about science that are very difficult, and if you
don’t do them well you’re not doing yourself
any favours. To write a really good paper, to as-
semble a story, find something out and then be
able to report it accurately
and succinctly is amazing-
ly difficult. But obviously
well worth it when your
reviewers can see clearly
what you’ve discovered
and how important it is.
You sit on many evaluation panels. As future
evaluees, what advice do you have for us? How
much importance should we give to things like
Impact Factors?
I think it’s very hard to escape from these
quantifiable indicators. The problem with them
is that the number of citations depends on the
number of people in the field, so you need to
know where you stand in the hierarchy of that
field. The truth is, when I’m asked to evaluate
people’s science, I do look up their Impact Fac-
tors. Then I throw them away.
Part of your success as a scientist can be at-
tributed to the fact that you have had an open
mind, that you’ve been able to see things you
weren’t looking for.
I suppose that’s one of
my virtues – I’ve been able
to spot the exceptions. Often
scientists today have great
expectations of the new tech-
nologies and instrumentation
available. It’s as if you can run a bunch of DNA
sequences or a mass spec, and the machines will
give you all the information you need to make
your conclusions. Yes, there’s lots of informa-
tion in there to be had, but it’s not always so
straightforward! Being open to nature and
where it can take you is critical.
For the future Nobel laureates among us, how
does winning the Prize change your life?
Practically speaking, you’re in much great-
er demand. You travel in the front of plane
rather than the back, you get to stay in nicer
hotels... But it’s also very difficult. At first you
think why me? I felt inadequate. It doesn’t re-
ally change your science, though.
What convinced you to accept our invitation to
come to Postdoc Day?
My rule is that if I get an invitation from
groups like yours or graduate students, if I
can come, I will. I get invited to give plenary
lectures at all sorts of meetings that I have no
problem not accepting. I feel a certain respon-
sibility with young scientists, though. I see it as
my duty – but it’s also a pleasure. I love travel-
ling, meeting new people. I may be getting a bit
older, but as long as I have the chance to talk
to young scientists, I stay young myself. (inter-
view by Jordi Duran) .
If you ask your average postdoc about what life is like at this particular stage of their careers, they will likely tell you it’s a time of high expec-
tations. You’re no longer in training and you need to step up your game. You’re expected to publish and publish well. Supervise students.
Prepare grant applications. Build your international reputation and collaborate with other researchers. Teach. Manage projects. Devise long-
term strategic research plans. And all of this often with little or no support. That makes initiatives like Postdoc Day, organized by IRB Barcelona’s
Postdoc Council on 3 April, all the more important. It’s a chance for postdocs to get together to share not only their science but also their ideas about
how to successfully navigate this critical time. Sir Tim Hunt, Nobel Prize winner, IRB Barcelona External Advisory Board member and one-time
postdoc, was on hand at the event and sat down with the postdocs to share his perspective..
The first Postdoc Day took place at IRB Barcelona on 3 April 2014. Clockwise from top left: Sir Tim Hunt chats with organizer Jordi Duran, researchers from IRB Barcelona and beyond gave inspiring talks on a range of fields to a full house, poster sessions provided a chance for exchange and interaction. (Photos: O. Martorell)
p3in vivo April 2014 | Issue 26
Once upon a time there was a corrupt molecule, p38. This protein,
present in all the cells of our body, is responsible for transport-
ing information from outside the cell into the nucleus to ensure
that the cell responds appropriately to the extracellular context. p38 is what
is known as a signalling molecule. Researchers headed by Angel R. Ne-
breda, ICREA research professor and BBVA Foundation Cancer Research
Professor, have revealed the dual role of p38 in colon cancer in a study
published in the journal Cancer Cell.
After six years of rsearch and having obtained a PhD based on this
study, scientist Jalaj Gupta describes how p38 protects us against the devel-
opment of colon tumours. Once
cancer is established, however,
the tumour cells use the same
molecule to survive and prolif-
erate. The good news is that p38
inhibitors are available and they
have been tested in clinical trials
for other diseases. The IRB Bar-
celona scientists administered
these inhibitors to mice with
colon cancer and managed to re-
duce their tumours considerably.
Do these results have a prac-
tical application in the near fu-
ture? “Physicians could be able
to use p38 inhibitors to reduce
the size of the tumour a few days before surgical intervention, thus facili-
tating its removal,” explains Nebreda.
Such use of the inhibitors could be an interesting application for sur-
gery, but what about a possible treatment to eradicate colon cancer? As
the authors note, while p38 inhibitors reduce the size of the tumour, when
withdrawn, the tumour starts to grow again. “p38 inhibitors may have clini-
cal applications, but probably – and this forms part of the medicine of the
future – these will be in combination with other drugs. Now we'll look at
which molecules we can combine p38 inhibitors with so that the tumour,
which is now smaller, will finally disappear,” explains Nebreda.
The inevitable question is whether it would be wise to use an inhibitor
of p38 inhibitor, given the dual function of this protein as a suppressor and
promoter of colon cancer tumours. The researchers believe so, although
they indicate that it is essential to determine for which patients and in which
contexts it would be most beneficial.
“Our study highlights
the complexity of p38 func-
tions, both in cancer and in
the maintenance of normal
tissues,” summarizes Gupta,
“and shows why an inhibi-
tor of this molecule could
effectively have undesirable
side effects. But these do not
exclude it from being a tar-
get against cancer.” Nebreda
goes on to add, “All drugs
currently used to treat cancer
have side effects and in this
regard p38 inhibitors would
be no exception.” As for all
anti-cancer drugs, the pros and cons have to be weighed up carefully.
In the meantime, basic research into the function of p38 in cancer con-
tinues through an ERC Advanced Grant that Angel Nebreda has until 2017.
In addition, the lab will extend the study to breast and lung cancers. (sa).
p3in vivo April 2014 | Issue 26
er. Antonio Zorzano, IRB Barcelona Group
Leader and Professor at the University of Bar-
celona, received the accolade as part of ICREA
Academia Programme, which aims to motivate
and retain university faculty with outstanding
careers. More than half of all IRB Barcelona
Group Leaders now have the ICREA stamp of
approval.
...and ACCIÓ! In March, ACCIÓ, the
Catalan Government’s agency for business
competitiveness, has awarded Roger Gomis a
€90,000-grant to develop his technology trans-
fer project, New markers for bone metastases.
This VALTEC technology valorization grant is
a new resource to motivate research centres to
conduct projects of technological value and to
offer them tools to compete in the market.
BioMedTec programme continues. IRB
Barcelona’s BioMedTec programme, a trans-
versal initiative to detect and accelerate projects
with high potential to be transferred to industry
has just received the nod from its funding entity
”la Caixa”. They have now extended their sup-
port for a third call, allowing more groups from
across the five research programmes to partici-
pate.
EACR award for Eduard. The European
Association for Cancer Research (EACR) has
awarded Eduard Batlle the Pezcoller Founda-
tion–EACR Cancer Researcher Award. Batlle
will travel to Munich in July to collect the prize,
which is given biennially to young researchers
in recognition of their academic excellence and
achievements in the field of cancer research.
ICREA stamp of approval. As of April, the
Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced
Studies (ICREA) has a new Academia research-
IN BRIEF
Unveiling the wicked ways of p38
Angel R. Nebreda and Jalaj Gupta discover a dual role for the signalling molecule p38 in colon cancer. Their work appears in Cancer Cell in April. (Photo: S. Armengou) Above: a cross section of colon cancer tissue.
in vivo April 2014 | Issue 26p4
Using crystallography to understand life
These two conditions with complicated names cause muscle
wastage. Sarcopenia affects the elderly and leads to reduced
mobility or a decrease in strength. Cachexia is an extremely
debilitating symptom seen in patients with cancer, AIDS, and other in-
fectious diseases. No effective treatment is currently available for either
condition.
IRB Barcelona Group Leader Antonio Zorzano, who works on dia-
betes and obesity, has associated a protein studied in his lab, called DOR,
with muscle atrophy. While examining the function of DOR in animal
models of type 2 diabetes, David Sala, a predoc in Zorzano’s group who is
now at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, Califor-
nia, observed that the animals overexpressing this protein showed a great-
er loss of muscle mass than those in which it was genetically suppressed.
Faced with these results, the researchers postulated in the Journal of
Clinical Investigation – one of the main journals in experimental medi-
cine – that DOR could be a valid target for the development of a drug to
prevent or stop muscle loss.
DOR participates in autophagy, an internal cleansing mechanism that
all cells have to keep them healthy. Eliminating DOR does not impair
autophagy because it is not an essential component for this process, but
acts more as an accelerator. The scientists believe that a drug capable of
modulating DOR activity would allow cells to maintain a healthy level
of autophagy.
“This finding can now be taken a step further by pharmaceutical re-
searchers who can determine whether a drug targeting DOR would pro-
vide an effective treatment for these patients,” says Zorzano.
Also, in the same study, the IRB Barcelona researchers explain why
patients with type 1 diabetes lose more muscle than those with type 2.
Analyzing biopsies from patients, they have observed that DOR is natu-
rally repressed in the latter.
Yet another example of how nature adapts itself to prevailing circum-
stances. (sa).
A target for sarcope-nia and cachexia?
Useful interactions Can you
imagine all the possible interactions
between proteins inside a cell just in one single
map? That is what Roberto Mosca and Patrick
Aloy set out to achieve in a collaborative study
led by the Craig Venter Institute and published
in Nature Biotechnology. The interactome map
show 25% of all binary protein-protein inter-
actions in E. coli and includes more than 70%
of the proteome. “This map allows us to de-
sign antibiotics, understand pathologies, break
SCIENCE BITES
➲ interactions between proteins and dismantle
parts of its molecular machinery,” explains
Aloy..Blocking tumorigenesis Apoptosis, cell cycle arrest and DNA
repair are essential to prevent DNA damage-
induced tumorigenesis. This is the main con-
clusion that Andres Dekanty and Lara Bar-
rio from Marco Milan’s Lab published in
Oncogene. Their study supports the role of
genomic instability in tumorigenesis and dis-
sipates doubts about the role of those tumour-
suppressor processes during Drosophila DNA
damage-induced tumorigenesis. “The molecu-
lar cascades that regulate these processes in
Drosophila are well characterized. This allows
us to study the contribution of each of these
processes independently,” explains Lara..The shape of a HAT An in-
ternational team formed by Manuel
➲
➲
Atomic structure of an ARF/DNA complex. Auxins control the growth and development of plants through ARF (Image: R. Boer, IRB Barcelona/CSIC)
The UN has proclaimed 2014 the Year of Crystallography, a science
widely taken advantage of by structural biologists. One interna-
tional expert in this field is IRB Barcelona’s Miquel Coll. Using
crystallography, his group obtains 3D information about the macromol-
ecules that form life, and how proteins and nucleic acids are organized at
the atomic scale. This year, Coll’s group has achieved a breakthrough using
crystallography and crystal X-ray diffraction; their study, first-authored
by Roeland Boer, appeared in the March edition of Cell.
Five years ago, the group began to collaborate with a team at the Uni-
versity of Wageningen, in the Netherlands. The Dutch team studies the
role of development of plants, in particular how auxin hormones regulate
development through proteins known as ARF transcription factors. The
idea of the joint project was to shed light on how ARFs interact with
DNA to allow plants to extend roots, mature fruit, flower, grow in a given
direction, and so on.
Using the nearby ALBA synchrotron and the ESRF in Grenoble,
the team of structural biologists at IRB Barcelona solved the puzzle.
They managed to crystallize two distinct ARF proteins, both alone and
bound to DNA. The complexes fi-
nally allowed the researchers to
understand the mechanism that
activates or represses the
genes responsible for plant
growth. “Our studies have
revealed the final action of the
main hormone that controls
plant development on DNA,
that is to say, on genes, con-
tributing a key point in our
knowledge about basic
molecular biology,” ex-
plains Coll. (sa).
p5in vivo April 2014 | Issue 26
When he was a child, Catalan wine ex-
pert Xavier Ayala lost his father to
lung cancer that had spread to his
bones. After reading in the press about the dis-
coveries that Joan Massagué and his team at the
Sloan Kettering Institute have recently made about
the causes of metastasis, he made a decision. He
contacted Massagué with a very clear proposal: or-
ganize a wine tasting event and donate the benefits
to research against metastasis.
“It was hard to grow up without my father,”
says Xavier. “I have always wanted to help some-
how in the fight against cancer. This is my chance”.
And thus Vi per Vida (Wine for Life) was born.
Vi per Vida is a charitable organization that Xavi-
er has set up to raise funds and awareness about
cancer and metastasis, and highlight the progress
being made in the lab in the fight against it. Vi
per Vida will organize regular wine tasting events
across Catalonia throughout the year. The first ses-
sion will take place on 31 May 2014, to coincide
Vi per Vidawith World No Tobacco Day, in Xavier’s home-
town of Mollerussa (Lleida).
The event will bring together 500 participants
to taste seven different wines from the Costers del
Segre DOC, under Xavier’s expert guidance.
The City Hall of Mollerussa, the Catalan In-
stitute of Vineyards and Wine (INCAVI), several
local wine distributors, and
a number of local celebrities
have also lent their generous
support to the initiative, in-
cluding world renowned res-
taurateurs the Roca brothers
and artist Pilarín Bayés, who created the Vi per
Vida logo (see cover).
Participants in the wine tasting event will
make a small contribution for their attendance,
and all proceeds will be donated to IRB Barce-
lona research in cancer and metastasis. Those who
can’t make it to Mollerussa for the event itself can
still participate – Vi per Vida accepts donations
through their website.
Xavier’s story is an example of personal mo-
tivation and a desire to give back to society, two
elements that are especially important in the fight
against diseases such as cancer. “It’s not necessarily
just a matter of pulling out your wallet and mak-
ing a donation,” he says, “but looking at what I
as an individual had to offer
and how I could contribute.
It didn’t take much at all to
convince my friends and col-
leagues to help out. All I had
to do was ask,” he smiles.
“We congratulate Xavier for this important
initiative and look forward to strengthening these
kinds of collaborations in the future,” says IRB
Barcelona Director Joan J. Guinovart “We are
honoured that he has chosen IRB Barcelona as a
partner. Salut i Vi per Vida!” (ams).
Palacín’s lab at IRB Barcelona, the University
of Bern in Switzerland, and computational bi-
ologists from the Joint BSC-CRG-IRB Pro-
gramme in Computational Biology has ob-
tained the structure of a human HAT protein.
“HAT proteins are mini-machines that are in-
serted into the membrane and are in constant
movement, engulfing amino acids from the ex-
tracellular space and releasing them in the cy-
toplasm or vice versa,” explains Palacín. These
proteins are associated with multiple diseases,
such as aminoacidurias and various types of
cancer, and are extremely difficult to crystal-
lize. The study, performed by Albert Rosell
and Elena Álvarez-Marimon, has been pub-
lished in PNAS. “Now the search for a HAT-
specific drug is closer,” concludes Palacín..Therapeutic venoms The use
of natural venoms in cancer therapy is
an increasingly active field. Natural venoms
include powerful cell-killing molecules, but
I have always wanted to help somehow in the fight against cancer. This is my chance.❞
Xavier Ayala, wine expert
❝
Reservations at http://vipervida.blogspot.com.es or through the IRB Barcelona homepage.
they have drawbacks: they attack all cells in-
discriminately and they have a short lifespan.
Ernest Giralt and his colleagues have now
obtained a stable transporter that carries the
venom inside the cells where the toxic mol-
ecule is activated by tumour-specific enzymes.
Published in Journal of Controlled Release, the
study has now entered a new stage which will
determine how innocuous and effective this
venom-delivery system is in vivo. (om) .➲
p5April 2014 | Issue 26in vivo
The Olivera winery, Costers del Segre. (Photo: Bodega Olivera)
in vivo April 2014 | Issue 26p6
“Spend the Summer in the Park!,”
the internship programme that
brings university students closer to
the world of research, has launched its call for
2014. The programme is open to undergradu-
ate students of universities worldwide and gives
them an opportunity to participate in research
projects of institutes and companies in the Bar-
celona Science Park.
Students and tutors alike consider this
short stay an exciting and fruitful experience,
and many students maintain links with the re-
search group once the internship is over. Over
the past five years, IRB Barcelona’s 23 research
labs and seven core facilities have welcomed
more than 50 students doing their degrees in
biology, chemistry, biochemistry, physics, bio-
physics and pharmacy degrees in universities
across the globe.
According to Pol Arranz, who participated
in the 2010 edition and is now a PhD candidate
Ernest Giralt’s laboratory under the supervi-
sion of Meritxell Teixidó, “being accepted to
the programme changed my life. I had the op-
portunity to work in a leading research labora-
tory for the first time and that experience en-
couraged me to start a career in science. In part
thanks to ‘Spend the Summer in the Park!’, I
am doing my PhD today. During my stay, I had
the chance to synthesize and characterize pep-
tides to see if they could cross the Blood Brain
Barrier, and that is what I decided to work on
for my thesis!” (jl).
Summer holidays among test tubes
New Student Council-ers
PhD students call
The annual call for the ”la Caixa”-Severo Ochoa/IRB
Barcelona International PhD Programme has once again
come to a successful close. The fellowships, which offer
the opportunity for 10 excellent graduate students to join the In-
stitute, are highly competitive – more than 200 applications were
received from a total of 39 countries.
“The bar is very high in this selection process. Most of the
candidates who make it to interview have excellent profiles,”
highlights Patricia Nadal, coordinator the call and selection pro-
cess. “The Group Leaders have now made their first selection and
candidates will be invited to visit IRB Barcelona in May. These
visits not only allow the candidates to defend their application in
person, but also give them the opportunity to get to know what
life is like for students at IRB Barcelona, meet our researchers and
see our facilities,” she adds.
The ”la Caixa” fellowships seek to help brilliant students from
Spain and abroad get a great start to their life sciences careers in
cutting-edge research environments such as IRB Barcelona, or one
of the other Severo Ochoa Centers of Excellence working in the
biomedical sciences. “When I received the fellowship I realized I
was starting a new stage of my life,” says Arzu Ozturk, recipient
of a 2010 fellowship. ”la Caixa” opens the door,” she smiles, “but
it’s up to us to make the best of a great opportunity.” (om).
Each year half of IRB Barcelona’s 10-member PhD student coun-
cil rotates off, allowing new members to join. Elections were
held in March, and the PhD student body cast their votes, elect-
ing Artur Ezquerra, Júlia García, Marion Salzer, Daniel Byrom and Clara
Suñer as their new representatives. The students will take up their roles
effective immediately and will meet regularly to plan new activities and
liaise between the PhD community and Administration.
Why should students stand for election? “Simply put, to help the
IRB Barcelona PhD community in our day-to-day lives,” says Júlia Gar-
cía. “Participation on the Council really improves the PhD experience,
and lots of great initiatives arise from our meetings,” adds leaving mem-
ber Pablo Barrecheguren. “It’s an enriching and rewarding activity which
I’m sure will also be useful for my future career.” (om).
Former Spend the Summer in the Park! participant Pol Arranz (right) and mentor Meritxell Teixidó (left) in the Design, synthesis and structure of peptides and proteins laboratory at IRB Barcelona.(Photo: O. Martorell)
The newly-elected and currently-serving members of the PhD Student Council. (Photo: M. Minocri/G. Battista)
p7in vivo April 2014 | Issue 26
The Historic Building of the University of Barcelona hosted
the 12th edition of the “Live Research Fair”, an initiative that
brings the public in contact with cutting edge research per-
formed in the area of Barcelona. This year, Begoña Canovas, Ana Igea,
Lorena Ramírez and Raquel Batlle, from Angel R. Nebreda’s Signalling
and Cell Cycle lab carried the IRB Barcelona torch with their booth,
“How do we study cancer?”. They spoke with visitors about their re-
search projects and walked them through them some of the experiments
they do daily in their labs. (jl).
Cancer research live
The answer is clear: with lots and lots
and lots of practice. There are no two
ways around it.
For most of us, scientists or not, writing
can be a daunting task. It means finding the
right words to capture the thoughts in your
head, and put them down in such a way so that
people will want to read them. Will I be under-
stood? Will I be convincing? Will I be (gasp)
eloquent? In many ways it’s like putting part of
yourself down on paper for everyone to see.
We all have to write in some way or form
during our work days, whether it’s an email, a
report, or a scientific paper. In the research lab-
oratory, writing well can be a considerable chal-
lenge. Especially if you have been trained in the
sciences, and words may not be as forthcoming
as numbers and formulas. Especially if you are
writing in English as a non-native speaker.
Over the years, IRB Barcelona has or-
ganized several courses to make sure our re-
searchers have the opportunity to keep de-
veloping this critical skill. The most recent
edition took place on April 8, and was led by
Robin Rycroft, former scientific text corrector
at the University of Barcelona with more than
30 years’ experience revising scientists’ writ-
ten English. He gave his insight into why the
process of writing is important, and offered tips
and tricks to ensure that what you write is clear,
crisp and effective.
“Writing helps us to learn,” surmises Ry-
croft. “Often we’re not forced to think through
a topic properly until we have to write some-
thing down. It’s an opportunity: to question,
to reason your way through sequential steps
and to organize your thoughts. It’s a chance
to convince and to persuade. Clear writing re-
ally boils down to logically arranging your
thoughts,” he continues, “and if you can break
them down, and follow a few simple guidelines
so that you’re clear, you’ll be just fine. Be brief,
be concise and be economical! And yes, you do
need to practice,” he adds with a wink. (ss).
My, how did you learn to write so well?
Begoña Canovas gets hands-on with cancer research at the Live Research Fair, held on 8-10 April. (Photo: O. Martorell)
Robin Rycroft shares his tips and tricks on how to be brief, concise and economical at the Barcelona BioMed Workshop on Writing Clearer Papers, held on 8 April at IRB Barcelona.
Creu de Sant Jordi for GuinovartThe Government of Catalonia has awarded its most prestigious
recognition, the St. Jordi’s Cross, to IRB Barcelona Director Joan
J. Guinovart for his work on metabolic disorders associated with
neurodegenerative diseases, his contributions to the education
and projection of science in Catalonia. Guinovart, and the 26
individuals and 15 organizations who have been chosen this year,
received the honour in a ceremony on April 22, the eve of St.
Jordi’s Day. (Photo: M. Minocri)
NEW AT IRB BARCELONA
In vivo, issue 26. Published by the Institute for Research in Biomedicine. Office of Communications & External Relations. Barcelona Science Park. c/Baldiri Reixac, 10. 08028 Barcelona, Spain. Web: www.irbbarcelona.org -
Facebook: www.facebook.com/irbbarcelona - Twitter: @IRBBarcelona Editorial committee: Luca Tancredi Barone (ltb), Sarah Sherwood (ss) (editors), Sònia Armengou (sa). Contributors: Jordi Lanuza (jl),
Òscar Martorell (om), Anna Merlos-Suárez (ams). Graphic Production: La Trama. Legal deposit: MU-29-2012. This document has been printed on recycled paper. To subscribe or unsubscribe from
in vivo, e-mail: [email protected]. © IRB Barcelona 2014.
IRB Barcelona has welcomed its first Belarusian. New
COFUND postdoc Liudmila Filonova (Minsk, Belarus, 1982) joined Lluís Ribas’ and Travis Strack-
er’s labs in March. A biochemist by training (she did
her PhD at the MPI for Biophysical Chemistry in
Göttingen, Germany), Liudmila will study ADAT, an
enzyme that modifies tRNA and has been suggested to play a role in the
DNA damage response. Since her last project focused on kinetic studies
of ribosomal complexes in test tubes, she’s looking forward to extending
her expertise and learning new techniques along the way. “I’m an expert
in vitro,” she jokes, “and I hope I can now be one in vivo, too!” Scien-
tifically she is looking forward to taking advantage of the wide range of
seminars IRB Barcelona has to offer. On the weekends, she hopes to hit
the hiking trails. “I used to go off with my backpack for weeks at a time
in the mountains of Northern Russia,” she smiles. “I might not have
quite so much time to do that here, but I’m sure it will be beautiful.”
Jordi Lanuza (Sant Quirze del Vallès, Spain, 1985) is moving on to greener pastures, literally. As
of April, he’ll be at the Institute of Metabolic Sci-
ence at green and grassy Cambridge University (UK),
coordinating a new network of researchers working
on metabolism. Jordi leaves IRB Barcelona with sev-
eral badges on his sleeve: he began as an undergraduate student in Joan
Guinovart’s lab, moved on to complete his PhD thesis in cell signalling
with Carme Caelles, and rounded things off with a productive stint in the
Office of Communications and External Relations, where he learned the
ropes about institutional communications and outreach activities. Along
the way, he played an active role in the Student Council and other PhD
activities, such as helping to organize the first International PhD sympo-
sium. “I’m sure that everything I learned at IRB Barcelona will help me in
my new role,” says Jordi. “What will I miss the most? The people – after
all, they are one of the Institute’s biggest strengths.”
ON THE MOVEAfter six years heading up the Experimental Bioin-
formatics Laboratory, Montse Soler (Manresa, Spain, 1971) is returning to her first love: crystal-
lography. In April she took up her new position as
research manager of the molecular biology lab at the
European Synchrotron Facility in Grenoble, where
her experience at the interface between computational and wet biology
working to experimentally validate predictive models (not to mention
her expert lab management skills) will be put to good use. “I’ve had an
incredible opportunity at IRB Barcelona to merge scales of information
and experimental approaches,” she says. “There are not many labs like
this in the world.” Her new project, a collaboration with Patrick Aloy,
will focus on protein-protein networks in Alzheimer’s disease. They’ve
identified genes they believe are implicated in the onset of the disease.
“We’ve formulated some hypotheses at the molecular level, and now I get
to go back to crystallography to figure it out. I’m excited,” she smiles.
Prize-winning research projects
Every summer, IRB Barcelona labs fill up with talented
students who come to perform the experiments for their
high school research projects. It’s an insightful experience
which allows them to enter into a real lab, often for the first time,
before starting their university studies.
The visits are framed within the “Recerca a Secundària” Pro-
gramme, run by the Barcelona Science Park with the support of
the Catalunya-La Pedrera Foundation. Since the programme
started in 2005, close to 400 projects have been carried out, and
this year, IRB Barcelona scientists from across the research pro-
grammes supervised 34 students. As an added bonus, each year,
the organizers select the top three projects to receive a prize at an
awards ceremenoy, held this year on 19 March at the iconic La
Pedrera building in Barcelona. This year’s winners include two
projects done in IRB Barcelona labs.
One prize was awarded to Anna Sagrera (left) for a project
entitled. “The hidden face of progesterone in breast cancer.” She
was tutored by Enrique Arenes, who works in Roger Gomis’ lab.
The second prize was given to Martí Jiménez (right), who also
participated in the first edition of the “Crazy About Biomedi-
cine” programme. He worked under the supervision of Benjamí
Oller from Ernest Giralt’s lab on a project entitled “Towards a nanotheragnostic approach against Alzheimer’s disease.” And if
you’re keeping track, his research also garnered him a Certificate
of Award from the American Psychological Association, a Certifi-
cate of Outstanding Achievement for Ability and Creativity in In Vitro Biology, participation in the Young Researchers Certamen
in Malaga, and a “Ciencia en Acción” prize.
“The opportunity to spend my afternoons in the laboratory-
with Benjamí to complete this project has been great,” says Martí,
“His support has been crucial and it was nice that our experiments
worked out – we got some great results. It has absolutely reaf-
firmed my desire to pursue a career in
the biomedical sciences.” (jl).