in vivo - issue 22
DESCRIPTION
In Vivo Issue 22 IRB BarcelonaTRANSCRIPT
NEWSLETTER OF THE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN BIOMEDICINE
in vivoApril 2013 | Issue 22
The lab headed by Group Leader and
ICREA professor Raúl Méndez has made
a crucial step forward in understanding a
mechanism controlled by the CPEB1 pro-
tein that affects more than
200 genes related to cell
proliferation and tumour
progression. Their discovery was published
in March in Nature. The first author of the
article is Alessio Felice Bava, an Italian PhD
student, member of Raúl’s lab.
This finding is promising
for future therapies. To find out
why, see page 2.
Two recent examples confirm IRB Barcelona’s commitment to innovation and tech-
nology transfer.
As part of the 2012 call of their Mind the Gap programme, the Botín Foundation has
chosen to finance three projects from across Spain that they believe show extraordinary
commercial potential: two of the three originate from the Institute’s labs.
In other news, IRB Barcelona is one of five institutes to receive a share of 2.5 million
euros for a ”la Caixa” Founda-
tion initiative that aims to iden-
tify and develop basic research
with potential to translate into
commercial applications. IRB
Barcelona’s programme is called
CancerTec.
More on these stories on
page 3.
Competitive funding forinnovative research
p4The brain, an intercontinental challenge
Exploring microtubules
SpotlightLaura Boulan,chess and pimples
ExchangesOzgen Denisin California
p4 p8p5
New mechanism in tumour development described
IRB Barcelona director Joan J. Guinovart presents the CancerTec programme earlier this month. (Photo ”la Caixa” Foundation).
They’re waiting to welcome you in November
Preparations are under way for the 3rd IRB
Barcelona PhD Student Symposium.
A team of 13 motivated PhD students
working in labs from all five Programmes at
the Institute are ploughing full steam ahead to
make sure that once again the Symposium is
a success. This scientific meeting will see the
participation of around 200 young scientists
selected worldwide.
“This is going to be a top-level symposium
by PhD students for PhD students,” promises
Organising Committee member Constanze
Shelhorn.
Meet her on page 7 for more details.
The thirteen international PhD students in the Organising Committee of The Clock of Life. (Photo L.T. Barone).
in vivo April 2013 | Issue 22p2
“In science, it’s all or nothing.” Ambi-
tion flows in Alessio Bava’s veins.
He is a Roman biologist who is com-
pleting his thesis in ICREA professor Raúl Mé-
ndez’s lab. His efforts and self-confidence over
the last four years have resulted in the publica-
tion of a paper in Nature in March. The study
describes a mechanism controlled by the CPEB1
protein that affects hundreds of genes related to
cell proliferation and tumour progression. To
unveil the process, Alessio and his group used
Hodgkin lymphoma cells.
The team of scientists focussed its atten-
tion on CPEB1, a protein whose role in regu-
lating mRNA translation in the cytoplasm has
been known since the 90s. They suspected that
it might also be active in the nucleus and play a
role in controlling pre-mRNA processing.
“More specifically,” says Raúl, “we discov-
ered that it affects the alternative generation
in the mature mRNAs of the 3’-UTR, regions
where most of the elements regulating transla-
tion in time and space are located.” UTR stands
for ‘untranslated regions.’
The action of CPEB1, one
of the members of the CPEB
protein family, affects the
length of RNA: “By shorten-
ing the 3’-UTR in the nucle-
us, the regulated transcripts
lose negative regulatory signals. Un-
der these conditions, the factors for cell prolifer-
ation, such as oncogenes, are translated at higher
rate,” he explains.
The protein hooks onto the RNA in the nu-
cleus, and stays stuck to it while it travels to the
cytoplasm, where CPEB1 also regulates trans-
“The next step is to use the protein family CPEB as a therapeutic target to slow down cancer progression,” says Raúl Méndez, here with Alessio Felice Bava (back). (Photo L.T. Barone)
ICREA research professor, Cayetano González and his group have
published a new study in Nature Cell Biology that contributes one
important step towards elucidating the molecular mechanisms that some
stem cells use to renew themselves while generating differentiated daugh-
ter cells. Using the Drosophila neuroblast, the fly’s neural stem cell, as a
model system, the scientists identified a protein that plays a key role in
cell division. The protein, dubbed Centrobin, is both necessary and suf-
ficient to enable daughter centrioles to bind the pericentriolar material.
González’s group demonstrated that the protein is present in daughter
centrioles and absent in mother centrioles.
The article shows that daughter centrioles experimentally depleted
of Centrobin cannot bind pericentriolar material while mother centrioles
modified to carry ectopic Centrobin can. They also show that within the
cell, Centrobin is physically bound to a set of known centriolar and peri-
centriolar material proteins, thus identifying a molecular pathway that
might account for Centrobin’s function. “These studies are a good ex-
ample of basic fundamental research aimed to understand the molecular
basis of stem cell division,” notes the IRB Barcelona Group Leader. .
Centrobin, a key cell division protein identified
lation. This means that the protein coordinates
two sequential events in the gene-regulation
pathway.
Raúl and Alessio showed that if CPEB1 is
active in the nucleus, it controls around 200
RNA genes involved
in proliferation,
de-differentiation and transformation,
“three key features of oncogenesis,” points out
Raúl.
The finding is promising for future thera-
pies. “Most healthy cells do not express CPEB1.
And when they do, its cytoplasmic function can
be taken over by other members of the CPEB
family. In contrast, tumour cells are more de-
pendent on CPEB1 to shorten the 3’ UTR,
while fully differentiated healthy cells use lon-
ger 3’ UTR variants. So, if we can inhibit it, we
could specifically reprogramme or
inhibit the proliferation of the tu-
mour cells,” recognises Raúl.
“This research is helping me to
receive good offers for my next step
as a postdoc, an exhilarating phase
in every scientist’s career” admits Alessio. “I
hope I can combine my wish to be a good scien-
tist with my desire to form a family.” (ltb) .
Fundamental mechanism to unleash tumour progression explained
p3in vivo April 2013 | Issue 22
These little piggies are on their way to market
Alba solves first struc-tures The first paper published
with data on protein structures collected with the Synchrotron Alba carries the signature of an IRB Barcelona scientist. Research associate Joan Roig, in a study led by colleagues at the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, gathered 3D information of protein complex-es involved in cell division with the beamline XALOC, which is devoted to shedding light on macromolecular structures. “This work
helps us to understand how the proteins we study bind and interact; it could be highly rel-evant for possible therapeutic strategies seek-ing to target our proteins,” says Roig. Alba is a third generation Synchrotron Light Facility located in the Barcelona area..
Interdisciplinarity shapes proteins Boosted by the PhD pro-
gramme’s lab rotations and interdisciplinary postdoc programme, a collaboration between experts in computational modelling and bio-
physics has yielded a fruitful result. A study authored by PhD student Michela Candotti, postdoctoral fellow Santiago Esteban-Martín, and Group Leaders Xavier Salvatella and Modesto Orozco, and published in PNAS, describes a new technique that overcomes the obstacles encountered when studying the shape of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins (IDPs). “Our results contribute to research into disorders that involve IDPs, such as can-cer, Parkinson’s, Kennedy's and Alzheimer’s diseases,” explains Salvatella..
SCIENCE BITES
➲
➲
Modesto Orozco presents his project at the Botín Foundation in February. (Photo Fundación Botín)
Andreu Mas-Colell, minister of Economy
and Knowledge of the Catalan government,
and Jaume Lanaspa, director general of the
”la Caixa” Foundation, together with other
officials and scientists from institutes across
Barcelona gathered at the CosmoCaixa on 12
April to present a programme to foster inno-
vation. IRB Barcelona is one of five institutes
to receive a share of 2.5 million euros for the
initiative that aims to identify and develop
basic research with potential to translate into
commercial applications.
IRB Barcelona presented its CancerTec
programme, which this year has seen the
launch of four new projects aimed at devel-
oping new diagnostic tools and innovative and
efficient therapies for cancer. They include new
treatments for brain and prostate cancers as
well as tools to improve the sensitivity of pa-
tients to radio- and chemotherapy, and the
validation of a diagnostic and therapeutic tool
for liver cancer in patients with diabetes. These
projects are now in the proof-of-concept stage.
A second call for new projects is expected to
be launched in May. .
CancerTeckicks off
Promising research results coming from
two IRB Barcelona laboratories are no
longer just good ideas. They’ve been
singled out by the Botín Foundation to receive
support so that they can be developed into new
products and taken to market.
As part of the 2012 call of their Mind the
Gap programme, the Foundation has chosen
to finance three projects from across Spain that
they believe show extraordinary commercial
potential: two of the three originate from IRB
Barcelona labs. The first is a test developed by
Eduard Batlle and Elena Sancho to measure the
risk of metastasis in colorectal cancer patients;
the second is a drug-design simulation platform
engineered by Modesto Orozco (who is also
coordinator of the IRB Barcelona - Barcelona
SuperComputing Center Joint Programme) that
aims to reduce the need for pre-clinical and clini-
cal trials.
“Our project, Colostage, aims to prevent
patients who aren’t at risk of developing metas-
tasis from undergoing chemotherapy treatments,
which can be costly, unnecessary, and very ag-
gressive,” says Batlle. Through their research, his
group has identified a set of genes that determine
the likelihood of whether colorectal cancer will
metastasise. If patients don’t have the markers, it
is unlikely that their cancer will spread.
“Doctors simply don’t have the means to
distinguish between patients at risk and those
who aren’t,” says Sancho, “so our test will really
help them choose the best choice of treatment
for their patients. At the same time it will lead
to substantial savings for the healthcare system,
considering current colorectal cancer treatments
can cost up to 15,000 euros. It’s a win-win situ-
ation.”
Modesto Orozco’s ambitious Nostrum Drug Delivery is another example of a clever invest-
ment today that could lead to substantial savings
in the future.
The project relies on an immense database
of protein interaction dynamics, developed by
Orozco and his team, which allows them to
predict how a drug will interact with other mol-
ecules in the body. Their approach significantly
reduces the need for clinical trials, and could lead
to savings in time and costs of up to 40 million
euros per drug, roughly 10% of the total devel-
opment costs for each new product.
The Botín Foundation will invest a total of
one million euros to set up the spin-off compa-
nies that will develop these technologies, and will
also offer them management, coordination and
consulting support to ensure that in two years’
time the companies can attract additional fund-
ing and allow their products to finally reach the
market. (ss).
p3in vivo April 2013 | Issue 22
in vivo April 2013 | Issue 22p4
An eye on the future of microscopy
EXCHANGES
“Since I was 14, biology has been my dream”
SPIM. Memorise this name. It stands for Selective Plane Illumination
Spectroscopy, or Lightsheet Microscopy for short. “This is the mi-
croscopy of the future. It will challenge traditional confocal micros-
copy, especially for in vivo samples,” assures the Advanced Digital Micros-
copy Core Facility Manager Julien Colombelli. The company Carl Zeiss
commercialises this technique, implemented at IRB Barcelona since 2011.
The first public event to demonstrate the use of the technique took
place in January at the Institute, in collaboration with the Centre for Ge-
nomic Regulation (CRG) and the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO).
“Lightsheet microscopy causes less damages to the sample than scan-
ning confocal microscopy and allows us to take images much faster and for
a longer time,” says Colombelli. (ltb) .The brain, the 21st century’s challenge
In the space of only a few months, Europe and the US announced the
launch of two large-scale projects to study the brain. “Nobody wants
to be left behind,” says Modesto Orozco, IRB Barcelona Group
Leader and participant in the European initiative called “The Human Brain
Project” (HBP). The US project is still pending approval by the Congress,
but the European initiative is already underway, having been granted a ten-
year budget of one billion euros.
HPB involves more than 120 institutions, European and non-Europe-
an, with a considerable representation of Spanish and Catalan centres. The
EU’s HBP report states that “Understanding the human brain is one of the
greatest challenges facing 21st century science. If we can rise to the chal-
lenge, we can gain fundamental insights into what it means to be human,
develop new treatments for brain diseases and build revolutionary new In-
formation and Communications Technologies.” The main objective of the
HPB is to simulate brain function through supercomputation.
To achieve this objective, a full range of scientific and technical exper-
tise is needed, from molecular and cellular biologists to engineers and even
ethics specialists. Orozco is a world leader in simulating biological systems
at an atomic and molecular level, and he will be working with the network
of researchers devoted to brain simulation. “Besides the obvious medical
benefits, if we can understand how the brain works, with a bit of luck, we
will be able to design much more efficient software and hardware with
evident applications in robotics,”explains the researcher. (sa) .
Turkish born Ozgen Deniz (Izmir, 1983)
had very clear ideas when she was
young. “I was 14 when I first saw in the news
something related to biology research. And I
knew I wanted to work on cancer,” she recalls.
“Back then, I thought it was all simple. Only
later would I discover how hard you have to
work to get there...”
Today Ozgen is the first ‘experimental’
PhD student in Modesto Orozco’s Experi-
mental Bioinformatics lab. She is about to
complete her thesis on nucleosome position-
ing in yeast during the cell cycle.
As part of her training, she spent six
months in Los Angeles, at the University of
Southern California. “I had some results here,
and wanted to test them. In the lab they were
not doing exactly what I do. But soon I con-
structed my own strain of yeast. I learnt
all about the ChIP-on-chip technique,
which combines chromatin immunopre-
cipitation with microarray technology
and I brought it back here.”
Ozgen brings home a mixture of im-
pressions. “The experience was great,”
she explains. “It was an opportunity to
see how another lab works and open doors to
a possible postdoc position. I was impressed
by the level of the seminars and by how easy
it is to build up collaborations. Also, phar-
maceutical companies there are more active
in recruiting the best scientists. But I found it
disappointing that the productivity was not so
high. I find it is much easier and more efficient
at IRB Barcelona to order the products I need
for my science. Plus, here we have all the facil-
ities I need at hand, like Mass Spectrometry.”
After feeling uneasy at first (“Barcelona
is safer than LA,” she notes), she enjoyed
the beauty of nature and sports there. “I did
climbing, yoga and lots of surfing. Sometimes
I woke up at 5 to surf 2 hours before going to
the lab! Crazy, isn’t it?” (ltb).
Julien Colombelli in his core facility. IRB Barcelona, CRG and ICFO are the reference centres in Spain for Lightsheet Microscopy. (Photo L.T. Barone)
Ozgen in a climbing session during her stay at the University of South California, in Los Angeles. (Photo Y. Ozakin)
p5in vivo April 2013 | Issue 22
An eye on the future of microscopy
The brain, the 21st century’s challenge
Life begins with microtubules. These
long polymers of the protein tubulin al-
low, among other things, spermatozoa
to move around. They organise the interior of
the cells and control many key cellular processes,
such as division, the directional transport of pro-
teins and vesicles, or changes in cell shapes.
All eyes were set on those structural poly-
mers during the last Barcelona BioMed Con-
ference on 18-20 March which was organised
in collaboration with the BBVA Foundation.
Among the topics that caught the interest of the
150 participants were the malfunctions of the
microtubule cytoskeleton that can lead to can-
cer and developmental disorders. “The incorrect
functioning of the mitotic spindle, which drives
segregation of chromosomes during cell division,
was at the centre of some of the liveliest debates,”
confirms Group Leader Jens Lüders, co-organiser
of The microtubule cytoskeleton in development
and disease with Tim Stearns from Stanford Uni-
versity, USA.
Another inspiring subject was how microtu-
bules orientate. “Microtubules are polar struc-
tures that function as an organised group and
need to be carefully arranged. They also build
specialised structures such as cilia. These are like
a cell’s antenna, receiving signals that control cell
behaviour,” adds Lüders. Despite the tight sched-
ule, the days ended pleasantly, with warm poster
sessions, wine and snacks on the patio of the In-
stitut d’Estudis Catalans in Barcelona. (jl) .
Jens Lüders (left) organised the Barcelona BioMed Conference together with Tim Stearns (Stanford University, not pictured). Also in the picture, Group Leader Cayetano González (right)(Photo L.T. Barone)
First practical sessions for those “crazy” students
The time to begin to put into practice
what has been learnt in theory has fi-
nally arrived.
The 24 high school students selected for the
‘Crazy about biomedicine’ project, developed in
collaboration with the Fundació Catalunya-La
Pedrera, began with high anticipation their rota-
tion through the six labs, covering themes such
as DNA damage, cell architecture, neurodegen-
eration, membrane biophysics, drug discovery
through bioinformatics and therapeutic peptides
(in the picture).
Student Pepe Amich energetically sum-
marises a common feeling. “As always, it is a lot
of fun! I loved the lipid sedimentation assay in
Anabel-Lise Le Roux’s lab. The other day I was
in Bahareh Eftekharzadeh’s lab and I learnt a lot
about neurodegeneration and her work. Every-
thing is so incredibly fascinating!” .
Jesús has the con-
tagious enthusi-
asm of a newcomer.
“The Student Council has achieved signifi-
cant advancements over the years,” says
the newly-elected representative for the
Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Programme. “Often people associate the
Council only with the Cool-off sessions.
But it has achieved much more than that:
the contribution to printing theses, the
topping up of scholarships, the organisa-
tion of Student’s Day - a fantastic opportu-
nity to make good use of the interdisciplin-
ary environment to talk about our science,
as well as training courses, such as one on
public speaking. And we are also going to
establish Statutes for the Students.”
Jesús combines his scientific passion
(“I’m working on the synthesis of a marine
peptide, Mayotlide. I hope I can present it
at an international symposium in Septem-
ber,” he says proudly) with his desire to
change things and connect with people.
“We are the pillars of research, prac-
tically the arms and hands of the Group
Leaders. And we take part in most out-
reach and communication activities. We
play a fundamental role in science and we
are the visible faces of the Institute. I hope
people get more involved in the activities
of the Student Council,” he states.
Asked to pick an idea to fight for as
representative, Jesús would choose “a
‘Pausenraum,’ like in Germany, a rest area
in the Park where one can read a paper or
sit in a quiet environment.” (ltb).
“We, pillars of research”
New PhD Student Council member Jesús Herraiz (Photo L.T. Barone)
Benjamí Oller shows four of the students how to carry out their experiment. From left to right: Benjamí, Marc Duque, Sara Ávila, Judit Sanz and Adrián Manzanares. (Photo L.T. Barone)
Exploring microtubules
in vivo April 2013 | Issue 22p6
Considering the importance of English in
science communication and in order to
enhance the writing skills of members
of the IRB Barcelona community, the institute
organised a workshop, given by Robin Rycroft, a
highly experienced scientific text corrector, on 18
March for students and post-docs, aiming to provide
insights into English usage in science writing.
Armed with 55 words, the previous sentence is
an excellent example of how not to write English!
Guided by the words “clear, crisp, concise, short,
simple, and true” and previously primed with
exercises, the 20 participants’ editing skills were put
to the test with real examples of poor English usage
in science.
During a lively three-hour session, eyebrows
were raised in surprise as Robin masterfully reduced
a results section of 193 words to an amazing 9 or 10!
And heads were seen nodding in acknowledgement
of bad habits and common errors.
All those present will certainly think twice
about using “demonstrate” (3 syllables) or “show”
(1 syllable)! In summary, a refreshing insight into the
use of English in science.
For practice, see if you can reduce the first
sentence to 12 words. (ty).
IN BRIEF
Therapeutic peptides On 1 March
Group Leader Fernando Albericio gathered
around 100 people from industry and aca-
demia to discuss peptide-based drug discovery,
a promising option for addressing new thera-
peutic challenges in many diseases. The main
advantage of this approach is that new drugs can
be produced by chemical synthesis at a low cost
and with fewer side effects. The event was part
of MemTide, a project that brings together six
partners from five European countries.
Ageing and stem cells IRB Barcelona
is a partner in a new European project, Early
warning signals of ageing in human stem cells
and age-related disorders. Patrick Aloy’s group
is leading IRB Barcelona’s contribution to the
collaboration, whose goal is to apply integra-
tive systems biology approaches to characterise
the molecular players associated with the physi-
ological processes of ageing and age-related dis-
orders. EMBL is coordinating the project.
Young excellence The Spanish Soci-
ety of Biophysics (SBE) has awarded IRB Bar-
celona Group Leader and ICREA researcher
Xavier Salvatella the ‘Premio Grupo Werfen-
Izasa-Beckman Coulter.’ The prize is addressed
to biophysicists under 40 in recognition of the
quality of their research carried out in Spain.
Lluís Ribas’ switch As of April, Lluís
Ribas de Pouplana’s group has switched from
the Cell and Developmental Biology to the Mo-
lecular Medicine Programme, which is more in
Do you need some English therapy for writing? Then read this article
Business leaders, professionals and entrepreneurs dropped in on IRB Barcelona on
22 March to meet our scientists and get a glimpse of the Institute as an important
motor for innovation and the economy.
The visit was organised by “Barcelona Global,” a powerful platform of local
ambassadors who aim to showcase the city as an ideal place to attract talent and investment.
The tour, which also included stops at the PRBB (Biomedical Research Park Barcelona)
and the CRG (Centre for Genomic Regulation), gave participants a chance to see first-
hand how research is being done in the city.
Among the guests were senior members of the Catalan government including Antoni
Castellà, Secretary for University and Research, and Josep Maria Martorell, General
Director of Research (both in the photo on the left, sitting in first row).
IRB Barcelona director Joan J. Guinovart commented that “if businesspeople were
more aware of the value of our research, we could more easily transfer the knowledge that
we generate to the business sector.”
After the presentation, the guests met with the scientists working at the Institute. In
the picture on the right, PhD student Lorena Pereira shares her vision with one of the
entrepreneurs. .
Global opportunities for IRB Barcelona
Two moments of the Barcelona Global visit. (Photos S. Armengou)
Robin Rycroft during the class at IRB Barcelona (Photo L.T. Barone)
p7in vivo April 2013 | Issue 22
line with his current research focus.
Flying Dutchmen On 25 and 26 Feb-
ruary, a delegation from Nijmegen Centre for
Molecular Life Sciences (NCMLS) in the Neth-
erlands visited the Institute. The goal was to es-
tablish a strategic collaboration between the two
centres. The first consequence is the exchange of
students: in May, nine IRB Barcelona students
will take part in a retreat organised by the Dutch
PhD students.
Science fair On 11 and 12 April, two
PhD students and a visiting student from Travis
Stracker’s lab took part in the ‘Fira del Coneixe-
ment’ in Berga. There they showed a group of
interested high school students the secrets of ra-
diotherapy and genomic instability.
Capturing future scientists Oscar
Martorell, from Jordi Casanova’s lab, travelled
to Madrid in February to participate in Aula
2013, a key fair for education in Spain. His mis-
sion? To convince students to become scientists.
School visit 27 high school students
from Barcelona visited the Institute on 12
March. Jelena Urosevic showed them the Met-
Lab and how metastasis works. They also visited
Marta Vilaseca’s Mass Spectrometry facility.
Treballs de recerca On 20 April
the closing ceremony for Recerca en Secundaria
mentoring programme organised by the PCB
and the Fundació Catalunya - La Pedrera took
place at ‘La Pedrera.’ Three projects, including
one tutored by Laia Miret, received awards.
What? The third edition of the PhD Student Symposium is a top-level
scientific meeting organised by PhD students for PhD students.
It is a great occasion to interact with peers in an informal context.
Why?The topics of The Clock of Life are the molecular processes of
development, ageing and diseases. “A very appealing theme,” says
Organising Committee member Constanze Shelhorn. “Our speakers will give insights
into the factors driving growth, ageing and degenerative diseases. One session will be
on how to live longer and better and one on the limits of life spans.”
How? Participants will have many opportunities to talk to the speakers
in a relaxed atmosphere. The Organising Committee is preparing
a round table, tapas with the speakers, and a number of social events. “No one will
need to be shy there!”
When?The deadline for early-bird application is 23 June, the final
registration deadline is 23 September. The conference will take
place on 14 and 15 November at ‘La Pedrera’ in Barcelona.
Who?Thirteen
PhD students
from IRB Barcelona are in
charge of all aspects of the
organisation. “To emphasise
interdisciplinarity, we recruited
people from all five research
programmes at IRB Barcelona,”
she says. The students are
divided into teams, taking care
of everything from speakers,
venue and catering, to attendees,
website and sponsors. “We
have seven sponsors, including
a ‘platinum sponsor,’ Sigma-
Aldrich.” (ltb).
The Clock of Life: everything is on track for the 3rd PhD student Symposium in November
We’re going to make sure that stu-dent-speaker contact is optimal. No one will need to be shy!❞ Constanze Shelhorn, PhD student
❝
IRB Barcelona students among the eight finalistsfor the first Spanish edition of FameLab
FameLab is an initiative
that began at the Chelten-
ham Science Festival (UK)
in 2005. Its aim
was to identi-
fy new talents
among scien-
tists and educate
them to use an
innovative format
to popularise their
science: the scientific monologue.
Thanks to the British Council, Famelab
has spread to many countries, and now in-
volves around 4000 participants. Spain is
taking part for the first time in this inter-
national competition that challenges scien-
tists in a world in which they may not feel
comfortable: communication.
Helena González (from Travis Strack-
er’s lab) and Oriol Marimon (who was at
IRB Barcelona until last December) were
both selected, along with six others, for the
Spanish final, which will take place on 14
May in Madrid.
One of them might
make it to the European fi-
nal in Cheltenham in June.
Good luck!.
Lab rotationsAn experience all PhD students have to go
through at the beginning of their stay at IRB
Barcelona is the lab rotation. In the picture,
new PhD students and a postdoctoral fellow
learning about NMR and how to interpret
protein spectra with Group Leader María J.
Macías in February. “Looking at these data is
like looking inside a protein atom by atom,”
she says. .
Helena and Oriol during their performances. (Photos FECYT)
Enchanted by the secrets of NMR. (Photo L.T. Barone)
Working to make sure that everything at the PhD Student Symposium flows smoothly. (Photo L.T. Barone)
April 2013 | Issue 22 p7
Tomomi Hashiyama (Tokyo, 1981) joined Cayetano González’s Cell Division lab
as a postdoctoral fellow. Her new adventure at
IRB Barcelona has an additional perk: she joins
her husband Kazuya, a developmental genetist
in the same lab, thus doubling the number of
Japanese members at the Institute. She studied
in Toho University in Tokyo and holds a PhD in neuroscience from the Tokyo
Medical and Dental University. Her specialty was the neuropeptide orexin, a
key factor in the mouse’s circadian rhythm, and analysed the efferent neural
pathways of orexin neurons. Her research here will focus on tumourogenesis
in Drosophila. She has an advantage: her husband tutors her on the secrets of
cancer in fruit flies. “He teaches me kindly,” she reckons. “When I first arrived,
I was a bit afraid of what you hear in the news about Spain and the crisis. But I
love it here. Nice people, nice food, nice weather. And good research. Everyone
makes me feel comfortable. In Japan the university is crowded and a bit closed.”
IRB Barcelona’s new finance controller Maite Navarro (Barcelona, 1980) is not a fresh-
man at the Institute. She substituted another
position in the same department for seven
months last year. “The main advantage is that I
already knew what to expect,” she notes. “The
thing I love the most here is the constructive
and warm working environment: I learnt that it is one of the most important
things that makes you work better.” And Maite is indeed an extraordinarily hard
worker and gets along well with her colleagues. “Teamwork is very important to
me, and I like the Finance group here very much.” She studied business admin-
istration and specialised in finance administration and in the real estate market.
NEW AT IRB BARCELONA
ON THE MOVE
Drug design specialist Rima Chaudhuri (Kolkata, 1981) spent two years as a post-
doc fellow in the IRB Barcelona - Barcelona
SuperComputing Center Joint Programme. She
worked on the application of a novel physics-
based method called EDMD (essential dynamics/
molecular dynamics) in rational drug design and
on determining how to make drugs from structural knowledge of proteins.
She is now at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Australia, work-
ing in the Diabetes and Obesity Programme, where she is trying to integrate
multi-omics data and dissect the complexities underpinning a metabolic disease
like Type 2 diabetes. “The quality of science and the hard work of scientists
at IRB Barcelona is impressive. In Orozco’s group, there was always someone
to consult, which made research go quite smoothly. My friends there probably
love Indian traditions more than I do. They adapted very quickly to watching
long Bollywood movies with me and eating spicy Indian food.”
SPOTLIGHT
Laura, checkmating puberty molecules
Flies might not get pimples on their faces, but they do go
through a “teenage phase”.
One of the researchers who discovered that flies go
through puberty is Laura Boulan, a ”La Caixa” PhD student in
Marco Milan’s Development and Growth Control lab. She discov-
ered that a molecule called bantam drives the transition from larva
to pupa, the phase homologous to human adolescence.
This discovery relates growth and sexual maturity and may
explain why precocious puberty takes place in cases of acceler-
ated growth or obesity. Her results were published in March in
Current Biology.
Did you always want to be a scientist?
Not really! After my studies in biology in Paris, I decided to
spend a whole year teaching chess to kids. In fact, I still play for
a team here in Barcelona. Last year we got promoted to the first
division of the Catalan league. But that has always been only a
hobby and after that year off I decided to start a PhD.
And then you moved to Barcelona…
In France, if you take one year off, like I did to follow my
passion for board games, you cannot get a national PhD grant.
This is the reason why I started to look for international PhD
programmes and I found IRB Barcelona. The interview was love
at first sight. Now I know that it was a good decision, both scien-
tifically and personally!
What next?
I still have another project
to complete in Marco’s lab.
After that, I plan to move
somewhere in Europe for
a postdoc position. One of
the things I will value most
when making the final deci-
sion will be the research top-
ic. So far, I have worked
with cells, flies and
mice. But my special
interest is to model
complex phe-
nomena in flies
and then look
to see whether
they correspond
to what we see in
other more complex
animals, including hu-
mans! (jl).In vivo, issue 22. 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
Editors: Luca Tancredi Barone (ltb) and Sarah Sherwood (ss). Contributors: Sònia Armengou (sa), Jordi Lanuza (jl), Tanya Yates (ty). 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 2013.