BIST centres participate in #GivingTuesday

By November 22, 2017BIST, IBEC, IRB Barcelona

This year, the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) are both participating in Giving Tuesday.

Giving Tuesday is a global movement that encourages and multiplies the good actions of people. Through an online platform, anyone can donate money to a number of projects around the globe that they believe are worth contributing to. This year, IBEC and IRB Barcelona have assembled the following projects:

IBEC
IBEC’s Faster Future project for this year, led by Dr. Javier Ramon, will develop a new platform – a ‘muscle-on-a-chip’ – that uses a patient’s own cells to study myotonic dystrophy type 1, a progressive disability that begins in adulthood and affects 50,000 people in Spain alone. As well as modelling the patient’s disease in a personalized way, the platform will also allow the study of different drugs or treatments in conditions that mimic the body as closely as possible, as well as offering a more reliable alternative to animal models.

IBEC’s crowdfunding campaign in 2017 aims to raise the 25,000€ needed to carry out the last phases of the project: equipping the chip’s muscle tissue with biosensors, validating the platform and drug testing.

The Faster Future website will open for donations on Tuesday, 28th November.

IRB Barcelona
The “Futur” campaign supports young researchers and researchers at the beginning of their scientific career at IRB Barcelona, a unique environment in which they will develop their talent. At IRB Barcelona they have the guidance and encouragement of renowned researchers, with access to numerous scientific activities and services at the highest level and collaborate with scientists from around the world.

Donations can be made through this page.