In Vivo 16

IRB Barcelona one of eight centres awarded “Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence” distinction

NEWSLETTER OF THE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN BIOMEDICINE

in vivoOctober 2011 | Issue 16

02 Science for teachers 03 ERC Grant

to Orozco 06 Building Alba

The Institute for Research in Biomedicine

is one of eight research centres in Spain

to be granted recognition as a “Severo

Ochoa Centre of Excellence.” This award brings

with it funding of € 4,000,000 over four years to

each of the centres.

On October 5, the Ministry of Science and

Innovation (MICINN) announced the provi-

sional decision of the awards corresponding to

the 2011 call, its first edition, which is part of

framework of the “Programa de Fortalecimiento Institucional” of the National R+D+I Plan (2008-

2011).

The Severo Ochoa award will allow IRB Bar-

celona to launch the Metastasis Project, or “Met

Project,” a cross-disciplinary initiative that will

draw on and fortify IRB Barcelona’s strengths in

this important area for biomedical research. Over

90% of cancer deaths are due to metastasis. The

goal of the Met Project is ultimately to improve

biological understanding and treatment of metas-

tasis in order to reduce patient suffering.

“We are grateful to the MICINN for rec-

ognizing our project and for the opportunities

that this will open up for us,” says IRB Barce-

lona Director Joan J. Guinovart. “We have fought

hard to get this distinction and much work has

been channelled into defining the future plan

for the centre. This award of excellence has been

achieved thanks to constant dedication and hard

work of the entire IRB Barcelona community

since the institute was set up six years ago.”

07 On the Spot: Tony Hunter

National Research Award to Giralt A new spin offOne of the parameters by which IRB Bar-

celona measures its excellence is its capacity

to launch successful technology transfer

endeavours.

Group Leader Roger Gomis has had a

new idea. His goal is to translate his scien-

tific results into concrete improvements for

current breast cancer metastasis treatments

- and so in July he founded Supragen, IRB

Barcelona’s third spin-off company. To find

out more, see page 3.

Group Leader Ernest Giralt has received one of

Spain’s highest honours: the National Research

Award. The €100,000 prize, given by the Min-

istry of Research, recognizes Ernest’s contribu-

tions to the design, synthesis, controlled modi-

fication and structure of peptides and proteins,

as well as his contributions to advancing the

study of the function of proteins involved in the

development of Alzheimer’s disease and schizo-

phrenia, and more recently the use of peptides

in nanobiotechnology to create remote-con-

trolled drugs.

The aim of the National Research Awards is

to recognize the work of Spanish scientists and

their contributions to advancing science, knowl-

ege of humankind, and human progress.

in vivo October 2011 | Issue 1602

Achieving colon stem cell growth in

vitro has been no easy feat and may

bring the revolutionary paradigm of

regenerative medicine closer. By defining the

growth requirements of colon stem cells, sci-

entists with IRB Barcelona’s Colorectal Cancer

Lab have created a method to isolate these cells

from tissue and grow them as undifferentiated

multipotent cells outside the human body.

Peter Jung, first author of the study pub-

lished online on 4 September in Nature Medi-

cine, believes that the possibility of growing

human colon stem cells in vitro is a “welcome

alternative to the use of mouse tissue, since – he

explains – data yielded from mouse model sys-

tems might not fully apply to human stem cell

biology and human tissue homeostasis.”

In a world where harvesting colorectal stem

cells was not possible, a ‘recipe’ for isolating

and maintaining them ex vivo may provide a

universal tool for gastrointestinal research in

general, and also for research into several bowel

disorders, including colorectal cancer. Not in

vain, researchers in the field have spent years

attempting to grow intestinal tissue in vitro.

Until now, the wide range of growth media and

lab conditions tested have not been successful,

mainly because most cells in this tissue are ter-

minally differentiated and thus have lost their

proliferative capacity.

When examined closely, the internal surface

of the colon is lined with millions of differen-

tiated colon cells, which extract salt and water

from solid waste to be eliminated. Surrounding

these cells, the epithelium forms cavities, the

so-called intestinal crypts. At the bottom of the

crypts, undifferentiated EPHB2 receptor-ex-

pressing stem cells proliferate and move along

the vertical crypt axis while they differentiate

into the mature lineages of the colon. As they

do so, these cells progressively lose expression

of the EPHB2 receptor and start expressing

Ephrin ligands. The team of researchers led by

Eduard Batlle has taken advantage of the greater

presence of the EPHB2 receptor in stem cells to

purify them from human colon mucosa biop-

sies. Afterwards, and using culture conditions

that simulate the intestinal stem cell niche, the

scientists have managed to grow these stem cells

in vitro for more than five months.

Long before the use of colon stem cells to

create custom-made organs in clinical regenera-

tive medicine, which is where all the hope and

some of the hype lie, Batlle’s study is a mile-

stone. “We expect there to be many more ex-

citing applications for this achievement, which

will mark a step forward in scientists’ abilities

to innovate in colorectal cancer research,” con-

cludes Eduard..

First colon stem cells grown in a dishIN FOCUS

One of the biggest challenges facing

high school science teachers is to

keep up with the dizzying pace of

discoveries being made in today’s research labs

and teach these topics in such a way that they

create a passion for science among their students.

It’s a daunting task and teachers often have to

do it with little or no help. Research institutes

are becoming increasingly aware of the vital role

they can play in bridging the gap between science

and schools, and are launching teacher training

initiatives. IRB Barcelona has now joined forces

with the European Molecular Biology Labo-

ratory (EMBL) to do just that. Through their

highly successful European LearningLab for the

Life Sciences (ELLS) programme, EMBL offers

hands-on workshops for teachers across Europe.

Each year they choose an institute within an

EMBL member state in which to set up a course;

this year it’s IRB Barcelona’s turn.

The institutes will collaborate to hold a

three-day workshop, called “On the Fly: A

practical course for teachers on development in

Drosophila melanogaster,” on November 24-

26, which will give teachers

from across Catalonia the

chance to work alongside

our scientists to explore

the latest discoveries and

techniques in fruit fly

research. Talks by Cay-

etano González, Jordi

Casanova and Marco

Milán will be com-

plemented by hands-on exercises in the lab, led

by Sofía Araujo and PhD student volunteers, as

well as a look at the latest microscopy techniques

our researchers use to do their work. Activities

will also include a tour of online resources and a

role-play discussion about the advantages of us-

ing animal models such as the fruitfly in today’s

biomedical research.

The ultimate goal is to arm

the teachers with the knowledge

and tools to take today’s research

back to their schools, and to set up

a network of teachers and scientists

who can stay in contact to help

identify and implement successful

approaches in the classroom..

EMBL and IRB Barcelona join forces for teachers

ITZIAR CASTANEDO

Human colonic spheroids grown in a 3D in vitro tissue culture system.

IMAG

E: BATTLE LAB

03in vivo October 2011 | Issue 16

More good news for IRB Barcelona

researchers this autumn. On 14

October, Modesto Orozco, Mo-

lecular Modelling and Bioinformatics Group

Leader, and director of the Joint Research

Programme in Computational Biology with

the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, was

awarded an Advanced Grant from the Euro-

pean Research Council (ERC). Modesto was

selected from a pool of 2284 applicants, and

was chosen in the category of Physical Sci-

ences and Engineering, a domain to which

usually around 45% of the budget is destined.

His proposal focused on advanced multiscale

simulation of DNA, and will be funded up to

€ 3,000,000 for the next five years.

Since 2007, ERC grants support individual

researchers who wish to pursue frontier re-

search in Europe. The ERC encourages pro-

posals that cross disciplinary boundaries, pio-

neering ideas that address new and emerging

fields and applications that introduce uncon-

ventional, innovative approaches..

ERC Advanced Grant to Orozco

There are two key questions that Roger

Gomis, ICREA researcher and head of

the Growth Control and Cancer Metas-

tasis Laboratory at IRB Barcelona, asked himself

before setting up Supragen, the third biotech

company to come from IRB Barcelona labora-

tory benches.

After identifying a gene that can predict the

risk of metastasis of breast cancer to the bone,

he wondered: “are these results strong enough

to change or improve current strategies for

treating cancer metastasis?” The answer was a

definite, ‘yes’. “What’s the fastest way, then, to

translate these results into real treatments for

patients?” After consulting with experts from

biotech companies

and pharma, discus-

sions with the Inno-

vation Department at

IRB Barcelona – and

negotiations between

the two institutions

involved, IRB Barcelona and ICREA – Roger

took the plunge to set up Supragen in mid July.

Supragen seeks to develop a diagnostic kit

and new treatments for breast cancer metastasis.

“It is directed toward two market opportunities

at the same time,” explains Roger. First, it will

develop a series of tools to diagnose breast cancer

patients with a high risk of suffering metastasis

to the bone, the most common kind of metastasis

for this type of tumour. This will allow doctors

to design and modify current treatments to adapt

to the risk of each

patient, thereby im-

proving their quality

of life. In addition,

the company will

develop new thera-

peutic molecules that

inhibit the gene whose activity is required for

metastasis to bone. Supragen is supported by base

capital from the founding partners and expects to

close the first round of negotiations for capital

risk funding this October.

Technology transfer and the generation of

wealth and well-being is one of the main ob-

jectives of IRB Barcelona, as expressed in the

institute’s statutes, and it can also be seen as

an obligation that researchers have to society.

IRB Barcelona’s Head of Innovation Cristina

Horcajada explains that “Roger Gomis’ spin-

off is an example of how top-class research can

reach patients to increase their well-being and

also how it can generate economic wealth for

society.” Supragen joins the biotech companies

Omnia Molecular, founded in 2005 by Lluís

Ribas de Pouplana (IRB Barcelona-ICREA), and

Iproteos, founded in 2011 by Ernest Giralt (IRB

Barcelona-University of Barcelona) and Teresa

Tarragó (IRB Barcelona)..

PHO

TO: L.T. BARO

NE

SONIA ARMENGOU

The newly-founded spin-off company

Iproteos, launched in June by IRB Bar-

celona researcher Teresa Tarragó, and

Ernest Giralt, coordinator of the Chemistry and

Molecular Pharmacology Programme, is already

reaping the fruits of its innovation-based science.

The company has been awarded a €1000

accesit (special mention) Young Entrepreneur

Prize from ASEBIO, Genoma España, SEBiot

and SEBBM. Teresa collected the award at the

Entrepreneur Forum held in September.

Iproteos develops a new generation of drugs,

based on peptides. Traditional, small size drugs

often show important side-effects, whereas pro-

tein-based drugs are more difficoult to handle.

Peptides, on the contrary, are more adequate, due

to their lower toxicity and higher specificity..

More to come...

Supragen, a new spin-off for metastasis

Are these results strong enough to change or improve current strategies for treating cancer metastasis?❞

Roger Gomis, IRB Barcelona

❝

Group Leader Roger Gomis launched Supragen, a spin-off dedicated to metastasis research, in July.


O n 18 July, forty budding and some-

what nervous young scientists took

part in an award ceremony in the

presence of Science Minister Cristina Garmen-

dia to celebrate their admission into the ”la

Caixa” International PhD Programme in Bio-

medicine.

The ”la Caixa” Foundation has funded PhD

fellowships at IRB Barcelona since 2008, in rec-

ognition of the institute’s excellence in research,

the internationality of its scientific teams, the

quality of its technical equipment, and the inter-

disciplinarity of its projects.

IRB Barcelona receives ten four-year fel-

lowships through this programme and is one of

four centres to benefit from this accolade. The

other scientific institutions to share the award

are the “Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia,” the

“Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológi-

cas” and the “Centre de Regulació Genòmica.”

Although the ceremony was held recently,

our ten awardees actually joined the institute in

September 2010, after an intense selection proc-

ess involving about 250 applicants. Recruited

from eight countries, these rookies have settled

well into the institute and have further contrib-

uted to its already considerable international

dimension.

Constanze Braasch, one of the awardees,

was the voice of the new recruits. Speaking in

front of a packed audience and in the presence

of dignitaries from ”la Caixa” and Minister

Garmendia, she thanked IRB Barcelona and ”la

Caixa” for providing her and her fellow stu-

dents with the opportunity to spend the next

four years working towards a PhD in a highly

stimulating and vibrant environment. She ac-

knowledged the social responsibility of this fi-

nancial institution by making these fellowships

possible. Constanze’s enthusiastic reception of

this recognition reflects the conviction of these

young people that they have stepped onto an

exceptional launch pad for their future in bio-

medicine.

IRB Barcelona and ”la Caixa” have recently

extended the programme to include a new call

for the 2012-2013 academic year, an agreement

welcomed by the scientific community as an

example of support from the banking sector to

allow future talent to blossom in benefit of so-

ciety..

An old proverb says, “By learning you will teach, and by teaching you

will learn.” As the new class of PhD students arrives at IRB Barcelona,

bringing with them fresh minds and endless curiosity as they start

down their paths to discovery, we asked the Group Leaders who will

mentor them to reflect not only on what they can teach, but also on

what they can learn from their students.

“Science flourishes when you

meet a fresh mind. Good

students, such as many I have had

the luck to collaborate with, have

enlightened me by forcing answers

to unexpected questions and by

providing naïve, bright, innovative

views to old problems. I just have

to keep my mind open and enjoy

science with them.”

“The most valuable thing stu-

dents have taught me is to

reconsider why we do what we do

in the lab. We are often focused on a

narrow subject, consumed by small

technical problems. When a fresh,

inquisitive mind comes to the lab,

it’s like starting from zero. It helps

us see things that we might not have

thought about.”

Ramon Eritja

Viewpoint: What is the most valuable thing a student has taught you about science?

Miquel Pons

“Students keep reminding me

that there is no such thing

as a stupid question... If only they

remembered this when they attend

seminars!”

Xavier Salvatella

Excellence awarded again by ”La Caixa” Foundation

“Throughout my career

I’ve learned a lot from

my students. Maybe the most im-

portant thing is to be more self-

inquiring and non-conformist in

our daily activity.”

Antoni Riera

TANYA YATES

Check out the IRB Barcelona Annual Report online: www.irbbarcelona.org/ annualreport2010/

PhD student Elisa Montagni accepts her award from Science Minister Cristina Garmendia.

PHO

TO: N

. NO

RIEGA


A new European Academic IRB Barcelona Director Joan J. Guinovart

was invited to join the Academia Europaea,

a European Academy of Humanities, Letters

and Sciences founded in Cambridge in 1988.

Its nearly 2000 members are scientists

and scholars who collectively aim to pro-

mote learning, education and research.

Among its members are leading experts from

the physical sciences and technology, bio-

logical sciences and medicine, mathematics,

letters and humanities, social and cognitive

sciences, economics and law.

Recognizing young talentAlbert Escobedo, a PhD student in Maria Ma-

cias’ Protein NMR Spectroscopy lab work-

ing on HECT-type ubiquitin ligases, received

a ‘special mention’ in the National Prizes for

Excellence in University Performance awarded

by Spain’s Ministry of Education. He received

the honour in July in acknowledgement of his

undergraduate work on biotechnology at the

University of Lleida, in Catalonia. These prizes

are awarded by the Ministry in recognition of

outstanding curricular merits throughout the

academic career of young individuals.

IN BRIEF

Life in motion attracts top scientists to Spain

The invited speakers are preparing to join the 2nd IRB Barcelona International PhD Student Symposium. Clockwise from top: Aaron Ciechanover

(Israel), Julius Brennecke (Austria), Sarah A. Teichmann (UK), Anne-Claude Gavin (Germany), Conly Rieder (USA), Piet Gros (Netherlands),

Mónica Bettencourt Dias (Portugal), Christian Griesinger (Germany), Erik Sahai (UK). More info: www.irbphdsymposium.org.

Nine of the best scientists in their fields, including Nobel Prize winner Aaron Ciechanover,

are ready to fly to the Catalan capital for the symposium Life in Motion: Dynamics of Mol-

ecules and Systems, which is organized by the IRB Barcelona PhD students and will be held on

November 17 and 18. The first edition of these international events took place in 2009. Young

scientists were given the opportunity to participate in all the aspects of organizing a scientific

event and faced all the complex logistical and scientific issues. In a stimulating and open at-

mosphere, as they explain, they hope to exchange experiences and knowledge. “We expect the

speakers to engage an audience with diverse backgrounds,” says Andrey Dyachenko, one of

the twelve organizers. “The most important aspect is the discussion. Here in Spain often people

are not used to raising their hands: we are going to encourage people to participate as much as

we can,” says the Russian-born scientist. One of the parameters of success has been fulfilled:

170 were seats available for the event, and more than 230 scientists (55% from Spain) applied,

most of them with scientific contributions. Next stop, the Barcelona Aquàrium.

October has proven to be a great month for

IRB Barcelona runners. First, on October

3, Roman Kessler, a PhD student in Ferran

Azorín’s lab, won the Collserola marathon -

a grueling 42.195 km through the mountains

surrounding Barcelona. Then, a week later, a

group of ten runners from the Institute par-

ticipated in the Vencer el Cáncer 4km char-

ity run along the Barcelona beachfront....

and Roman won again! This time he was in

good company, as IRB Barcelona alumna

Adelaida Díaz took third place in the wom-

en’s category.

Run, Roman, Run!


On sugar, mice and modelsBrain cells, with the exception of astrocytes, do

not accumulate glycogen for energy storage. But when they do, it might lead to cell death, thus to disease. Lafora disease, a fatal form of epilepsy caused by mutations in either the laforin or malin gene, is one of these disorders. Researchers led by Joan J. Guinovart at IRB Barcelona have developed a malin knockout mouse model that mimics the abnormal glycogen accumulation and the progressive loss of neuronal cells. The study, published in EMBO Molecular Medicine, highlights abnormal glycogen accumulation as the key element underlying neurodegeneration in Lafora disease..

Lessons from the gut More than 20 years after the discovery of the

Eph/ephrin signalling system, scientists led by Eduard Batlle at IRB Barcelona have found how Eph/ephrins direct the positioning of cells in the intestinal epithelium. At the boundary where undifferentiated Eph receptor-expressing stem cells meet differentiated epithelial cells, which express Ephrin ligands, the metalloproteinase ADAM10 destroys the E-cadherin-based adhesions between cells, thus creating two functional compartments. These results, reported in Nature Cell Biology, point to cell communication and adhesion as the basis for compartmentalization..

1 + 1 is more than 2The interaction of the proteins p38a and p38b

could lead researchers to discover new unexpected secundary effects of some drugs that inhibit the action of these two proteins. Iván del Barco Barrantes, research associate in Ángel R. Nebreda’s Lab, studied for the first time their role in vivo as a whole, rather than individually. He discovered that the combined deletion of p38a and p38b expression leads to severe and fatal alterations in embryonic development. These effects have not been observed in the absence of the individual proteins. The paper was published in PNAS in July..

Coordinated protein dance Parts of the protein model ubiquitin, whose key

function in cells degradation was discovered by 2004 Nobel Prize winner Aaron Ciechanover, move in a coordinated way. Using computational and experimental methods, Xavier Salvatella and his international collaborators have shown that at least four of the five beta-strands of the protein move in a finely tuned choreography. These correlated motions among distant parts of the protein might have implications for molecular recognition, as they can cause all atoms involved in protein binding to move in a concerted way. Their findings appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in June..

SCIENCE BITES

➲

“Biomedical research now has a powerful tool nearby”

D awn, ‘Alba’ for the locals, the resonant name chosen for the Spanish

synchrotron, evokes the concept of light – a key tool for this giant

laboratory, a few kilometres away from the Catalan capital Barce-

lona.

The word ‘synchrotron’ refers to a machine the size of a football field that

accelerates beams of particles (electrons) in a circular path to nearly the speed

of light. Deflection of the particles by powerful magnets makes them emit light

at various wavelengths, which is then channelled into a number of experiments.

Alba has the potential to host up to 33 experimental stations. Seven are currently

being implemented.

Three of these stations, or so-called beamlines, will be dedicated to biomedi-

cal research. The proposal and outline of one of them, dedicated to macromolec-

ular crystallography, was prepared by a panel of structural biologists coordinated

by Miquel Coll, head of the Structural and Computational Biology Programme

at IRB Barcelona.

Following the tradition of evocative names, the beamline experiment has

been baptized Xaloc, the wind that blows from the Sahara.

“Xaloc will have the most advanced instrumentation in the field and it may

allow scientists to collect data even from very large macromolecular complexes.

Many Spanish researchers are looking forward to the beginning of the activities

of this outstanding laboratory. Until now, we all had to travel to facilities in

France, Germany or Switzerland. As you can imagine, having one in Barcelona

will be a great opportunity for all scientists in Southern Europe and will allow us

to speed up our scientific output,” explains Coll, who heads the Structural Biol-

ogy of Proteins and Nucleic Acids Group at IRB Barcelona.

Like its twins Soleil, in France, and Diamond, in the United Kingdom, Alba

will have a power of 3 Gev – enough for most biological applications, but orders

of magnitude less than the 7 Tev of the famous Swiss LHC (Large Hadron Col-

lider), recently in the news for the faster-than-light neutrinos querelle. Unlike

the LHC, whose ambition is to create extremely high energy particle collisions

to study the fundamental forces of the universe, the 140m diameter Alba has the

goal to study matter at a molecular level.

“Biology plays an important role in today’s synchrotron science,” affirms

Coll. “Thanks to the X-rays produced by Alba, we will be able to study the

atomic structure of proteins, nucleic acids, and large macromolecular complexes

and particles, including viruses.”

The first beamlines in Alba are expected to be fully operational for users by

next spring..

ON THE SPOT

LUCA TANCREDI BARONE

➲

➲

➲


Every now and again, it’s good to take stock,

see what’s new, and catch up on recent devel-

opments. This is especially true for research-

ers at institutes like IRB Barcelona, whose

work often depends on knowing what neigh-

bouring labs are up to, and finding ways to

create synergies with them to tackle new

problems.

The IRB Barcelona annual retreat, held

on October 13-14, provided a welcome

opportunity for more than 100 research-

ers to hear the latest science from a selec-

tion of group leaders, as well as catch up on

one another’s latest discoveries during the

breaks..

❝ON THE SPOT

You have to have an open mindto get a result you don’t expect❞

IRB Barcelona’s Office of Communications

and External Affairs said goodbye in Sep-

tember to three members of the team who

have moved on to new adventures. Núria

Noriega, Nahia Barbería and Itziar Castane-

do spent several months learning the ropes

of institutional scientific communications

(including writing for the In Vivo newslet-

ter!) as part of their practical work toward a

Masters degree in Scientific, Environmental

and Medical Communications. Núria and

Itziar have gone to explore greener pas-

tures abroad, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and

Tromsø, Norway, respectively, while Nahia

is staying a little closer to home to set up her

own communications enterprise. We wish

them well!.

A fond farewell to three In Vivo collaborators

Taking stock at the IRB retreat

Researchers compare notes at the annual IRB Barcelona retreat, held in October.

British-born Tony Hunter (Kent, 1943) is

credited for one of the most significant

discoveries in cancer research, namely

tyrosine (one of the twenty aminoacids used by

cells to synthesize proteins) phosphorylation.

Phosphorylation is the chemical process that ac-

tivates or deactivates proteins and enzymes and

is crucial for cell development.

Hunter moved to California in 1973 to

follow his then wife. But when he returned to

the UK, he realized California was the place to

be. He has been

working at the

Salk Institute in

San Diego ever

since.

We met him

when he visited

Catalonia a few

weeks ago to at-

tend the “Signal

rewiring and ad-

diction in can-

cer” Barcelona

Biomed Confer-

ence. His rela-

tionship with

Spain, and es-

pecially with IRB Barcelona Adjunct Director

Joan Massagué, is long-standing: in recognition

of their breakthrough research in cancer, they

both received the prestigious Prince of Asturias

Award in 2004.

“Addiction – one of themes of the confer-

ence – is a term that was coined in this field of

research in 2002 and it accurately describes how

we believe cancer cells work,” says Hunter. “It

is the idea that cancer cells depend on a single

pathway that is usually activated by a mutation,

even though the cells have accumulated many

changes over their years of development. The

hope is that we can deduce these pathways,

and thus learn about the vulnerability of can-

cer cells, and develop a drug that can target that

particular weakness.”

In 2002, you invented the word kineome,

the collection of all 518 kinase proteins in hu-

mans. Can they be used as targets in cancer

research?

Kinases make good drug targets because as

enzymes they are easy to assay and they have a

particularly deep cleft into which to fit a drug-

like molecule. The problem is that they are very

closely related in sequence and structure. One

of the challenges is whether to aim for high in-

hibitor specificity or develop drugs that target

more than one kinase.

Can we expect

a cure for cancer?

We have been

promising we’d

have a cure for

cancer for a long

time. There are new

drugs, some of them

very useful, but in

terms of curing can-

cer we are still some

time away. The era

of molecular per-

sonalized treatment

for cancer is com-

ing, if we can afford

it. As we understand

the molecular defects and changes in individual

cancers, we may be able to do a much better job

in treating this disease.

Any suggestions about how to become a

successful researcher?

First of all, design experiments that can pro-

vide specific answers to an important scientific

question. Secondly, if you get a result you don’t

expect, have an open mind and never dismiss

an anomalous result. Finally, I have learnt that

you have to run at least three projects in your

lab: two must be based on relatively safe sci-

ence, planned to confirm and extend established

knowledge and get funding. The third one has

to take some risk. And thus discover the unex-

pected!.LUCA TANCREDI BARONE

NAHIA BARBERÍA

Tony Hunter has been studying cancer cells for the last forty years. He came to Barcelona in October to take part in the 16th Barcelona Biomed Conference.

PHOTO: L.T. BARONE

PHO

TO: L.T. BARO

NE

Bahareh Eftekharzadeh (Tehran, 1985) joined IRB Barce-

lona in September as one of the new ”La Caixa” PhD Fellowship

students. Originally trained in pharmacy in Iran, Bahareh has al-

ready completed nearly two years of her PhD at the Hertie Insti-

tute for Clinical Brain Research in Tübingen, Germany, where she

worked on clinical aspects of Alzheimer’s disease. Now, as part of

Xavier Salvatella’s group, she will continue to work on neurodegenerative diseases, but

from a structural biology perspective. Her goal is to help understand how protein ag-

gregates form and the role they play in Kennedy’s disease. Ultimately, she hopes to

combine her experience as a pharmacist, clinical researcher and structural biologist to

help find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.

NEW AT IRB BARCELONA

ON THE MOVE

Luca Tancredi Barone (Rome, 1974) is IRB Barcelona’s new

content manager. An astronomer by training, Luca left research to

delve into the world of science communications. A specialist in ra-

dio journalism, he spent several years working for Italy’s RAI and

numerous magazines and newspapers, and more recently at the

European Space Agency in the Netherlands, where he helped with

communications efforts for the Human Spaceflight and Operations Directorate. At IRB

Barcelona, he will put his journalism skills to good use – he’ll be in charge of writing,

editing and producing IRB Barcelona official publications, and will take over as editor

of the In Vivo newsletter.

During her PhD in Cayetano González’s laboratory, Ana Janic (Nis, 1978) investigated the molecular basis of cancer by using

Drosophila as a model organism. She is now at Andreas Strasser’s

laboratory, at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, in Melbourne,

Australia. She is going to examine the mechanisms that control

cell death and how their malfunctioning is connected to cancer

development. “My past and future research is interconnected by an interest in the

mechanisms for tumour cell growth and survival,” she says. “At IRB Barcelona I

have learnt the most important things that a PhD student needs for a successful

scientific career.”

In vivo, issue 16. Published by the Institute for Research in Biomedicine. Office of Communications & External Relations. Barcelona Science Park. Baldiri Reixac, 10. 08028 Barcelona, Spain. www.irbbarcelona.org. Editors:

Luca Tancredi Barone and Sarah Sherwood. Contributors: Sonia Armengou, Nahia Barbería, Itziar Castanedo, Núria Noriega, Tanya Yates. Graphic Production: La Trama. Legal deposit: MU-1296-2011.

This document has been printed on recycled paper. To subscribe or unsubscribe from In Vivo e-mail [email protected]. © IRB Barcelona 2011.

Ending up in the publishing world is not nec-

essarily a common professional outcome for

someone with a PhD in biology and who spe-

cialized on the insulin signalling system at the Univer-

sity of Virginia. But when Bryan Ray (USA, 1956) saw

that Science advertised a position with his profile, he

went straight for it. And has been working there for the

last twenty years, becoming Senior Editor (he later also

founded Science Signalling).

He came to town to attend the Barcelona BioMed

Conference in September, and took the opportunity to

give a very successful lecture with some useful pieces of

advice to young IRB Barcelona scientists on how to be

a victorious Science-publishing researcher.

“There are a few questions to answer before submit-

ting,” he explained. “Is this my best work? Will it have

a major impact? Will it interest scientists in other fields?

Does it overturn conventional wisdom? If all the an-

swers to these questions are ‘Yes!’, there is a good chance

that your paper will be published in Science.” Not being

published in this journal is not, however, a failure – not

in the least. Bryan and his fellow editors receive around

250 papers per week, for a total of about 13,000 per year

– and only around 1000 are finally accepted.

“Writing a good abstract and an engaging cover let-

ter is also an important step,” he defended. Sometimes

it is hard for the editors to get a good sense of the pro-

posed article, or of its implications. And while in the

article itself a good scientist needs to be cautious, in a

cover letter speculation is allowed.

To keep updated,

a good editor also

has to attend confer-

ences. “The Barcelona

BioMed series is an

excellent opportunity

to get the gist of new

promising fields,” he

concluded..

SPOTLIGHT

“A good cover letter is important to publish with us” - Bryan Ray, editor at Science

Splitting himself between Travis Stracker’s Genomic Instability

and Cancer Lab and Jens Lüder’s Microtubule Organization Lab, Marko Marjanovic (Zagreb, 1978) “will be the fittest scientist

at IRB.” As he explains, exactly 150 steps separate the two labs (he

counted). CEP63 gene (and the corresponding centrosomal protein)

are at the centre of his Marie Curie postdoc research project. Using

knock-out mice, he will study the functional role of the gene and its impact on neuro-

genic development. “Working in these two labs is an ideal match and will allow me to get

the best expertise in both fields involving my protein.” Compared to his native Croatia,

work at IRB Barcelona is better organized (“The equipment is available day and night”)

and more international. When asked about it, he admits that the first word he ever heard

in Spanish was embarazada. “There were too many Mexican telenovelas on Croatian TV

when I was young,” he explains.

Bryan Ray, Science editor. L. T. BARONE

In Vivo 16

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