In Vivo 19

NEWSLETTER OF THE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN BIOMEDICINE

in vivoJuly 2012 | Issue 19

p3Exchanges A. Dyaschenkoback from Israel

Mischa Dohlercheers up scientists’ spirit

Ysios Capital and Inbiomotion SL,

a spin-off company based on IRB

Barcelona research, have just signed

an important agreement that will result in the

injection of two million euro in the company,

which was founded by IRB Barcelona Group

Leader Roger Gomis.

The deal was signed in June and

it represents

a “significant

milestone in

the promotion

of Inbiomo-

tion,” declares

the researcher.

It is the

first time that

Ysios Capital has invested in a company

that has arisen from basic research.

According to Gomis, this confirms that

“cutting-edge innovation and science help

give a solution to unmet medical needs,

especially regarding cancer diagnosis and

prognosis.”

More on the agreement on page 2.

Nature Genetics’ editor suggestionsfor researchers

The Catalan government, following a pro-

posal by Catalan Minister of Economy and

Knowledge Andreu Mas-Colell, announced

that the prestigious 2012 Narcís Monturiol

Plaque will go to IRB Barcelona.

First created by the Catalan Government

in 1982, these awards recognize significant

contributions made by people and organi-

sations toward the advance of science and

technology in Catalonia.

Two other institutions, the Obra Social

”la Caixa” and the Fundació Fero, likewise

received the award in 2012.

The presentation ceremony will be held in

October in the Palau de la Generalitat, seat

of the Catalan Government.

Prestigiousrecognition awarded

The Initiative for Sci-

ence in Europe (ISE) held

its second conference in

Barcelona last May.

The theme of the three-

day conference was,

‘What does science need

to flourish?’. European Research Council (ERC) President Helga Nowot-

ny considers excellence and independence the most important assets that

guarantee that ERC maintains its reputation among scientists throughout

Europe.

The coordination of the initiatives and research programmes in the Eu-

ropean Research Area (ERA) is one of the key issues that scientists and

policy makers have to face. More on this on page 4.

ERC President praises excellence at ISE Conference

Octavi Quintana Trias, Director of the ERA, with ERC President Helga Nowotny

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An IRB Barcelona spin-off obtains important funding

InterviewJohn Petrini BioMed Conferencep5 p8p6

in vivo July 2012 | Issue 1902

First CancerTec call launched

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Whoever said that you shouldn’t stick

your nose into your neighbours’

business might have a thing or two

to learn from recent goings on at the Barcelona

Science Park.

Two of its prominent tenants, IRB Barcelona

and Ysios Capital – whose offices are across the

corridor from one another – have just tightened

their links whereby Ysios will lead a 2-million

euro round of financing for Inbiomotion SL, a

spin-off company founded in October 2011 by

IRB Barcelona and ICREA researcher Roger

Gomis. The collaboration with Ysios Capi-

tal, together with additional investments from

the Fundació Vila

Casas and JVRisk

Technologies, will

support Inbiomo-

tion in its efforts to

develop biomarkers

to predict whether

tumours from breast

cancer patients will metastasize to the bone.

Currently, no diagnostic tools are available

to specifically predict bone metastasis in early

stage patients. The basis of Inbiomotion is a bio-

marker, discovered in Gomis’ Growth Control

and Cancer Metastasis group, that codes for a

nuclear protein that is able to determine which

patients will relapse to the bone. It is a powerful

tool and a step beyond what is currently avail-

able clinically. With it, physicians will be able to

classify their patients according to their risk for

bone metastasis, better helping them to mark the

patients’ course of therapy. The proceeds of the

financing will be used to fund the validation of

this marker in various clinical studies in Barce-

lona and England and to advance its development

in order to achieve official approval.

“This financing round marks a significant

milestone in the promotion of Inbiomotion be-

cause it involves risk capital enterprises devoted

to the life sciences sector,” says Gomis. “In ad-

dition to providing capital, however, these in-

vestors bring essential know-how for business

development and immediate visibility in the

sector.”

“Inbiomotion has arisen from one of the

leading laboratories in metastasis research. Its

technology confirms that cutting-edge innova-

tion and science can

effectively give a solu-

tion to unmet medical

needs, especially re-

garding cancer diagno-

sis and prognosis, thus

helping to determine

the most efficient treat-

ments to prevent metastasis. Ysios will provide

the experience and industrial contacts to build a

reference company, together with the founders

of Inbiomotion,” says Joël Jean-Mairet at Ysios

Capital.

“This is the first time that Ysios Capital has

invested in a biotech company that has arisen

from basic research. This achievement indicates

that at IRB Barcelona we are performing cutting-

edge science that is attractive to investors and

that has the capacity to improve patients’ quality

of life,” explains Joan J. Guinovart, Director of

the institute..

❝This achievement indicates that at IRB Barcelona we are performing cutting-edge science that is attractive to investors and that has the capacity to improve patients’ quality of life.❞

SARAH SHERWOOD

Good neighbours make good business partners: Ysios Capital’s Joël Jean- Mairet and IRB Barcelona’s Roger Gomis seal the deal for a two-million euro round of financing for Inbiomotion SL, based on research developed at IRB Barcelona.

Two-million euro cash injection for IRB Barcelona spin-off, Inbiomotion SL

IRB Barcelona’s Innovation De-

partment has launched the first call

for project proposals included in the

CancerTec Programme, a seed fund

scheme promoted by IRB Barcelona

and supported by the Obra Social ”la

Caixa”.

CancerTec is a new platform

which aims to fulfill the potential of

research into early-stage cancer of the

type conducted at the Institute.

The programme will support sci-

entists as they try to develop future

diagnostic tools and therapies for

cancer and get them into the market.

CancerTec will allow to boost the

transfer of selected promising results

to the market, thereby increasing the

quality of life of cancer patients.

This represents an important new

step in a long-standing collaboration

with the Obra Social ”la Caixa” that

continues to produce excellent, inno-

vative research.

03in vivo July 2012 | Issue 19

Cells store glucose as glycogen (a poly-

mer of glucose), which is produced

by the enzyme glycogen synthase. In

the brain, glycogen is almost exclusively found

in cells called astrocytes.

IRB Barcelona scientists propose that, under

specific circumstances, neurons synthesize gly-

cogen and that it is essential for the functions of

these cells, but that excessive accumulation in-

duces apoptosis and neurodegeneration. Lafora

Disease (LD), a progressive myoclonic epilepsy,

and Adult Polyglucosan Body Disease (APGB)

are the most striking examples of the unhealthy

consequences of glycogen accumulation in neu-

rons. The process has also been described in

Alzheimer’s disease, diabetic neuropathy and

aging.

An IRB Barcelona collaborative research

line headed by Joan J. Guinovart and Marco Mi-

lán, ICREA researcher and a specialist in Dro-

sophila, has led to a publication in the journal

EMBO Molecular Medicine which documents

the toxic effects of the accumulation of glyco-

gen in fly and mouse neurons. These two ani-

mal models will allow scientists to address the

genes involved in this harmful process and to

find pharmacological solutions that break down

glycogen accumulations or limit glycogen pro-

duction. Advances in this direction would sig-

nificantly contribute to studies of LD and other

APGBs.

“Our data clearly indicate that glycogen ac-

cumulation suffices to kill neurons and thus dra-

matically reduces lifespan,” explains Guinovart,

an expert in glycogen metabolism. “In the study

the only manipulation we made in the neurons

was to increase their production of glycogen.”

Including the fly Drosophila in the study

provides in vivo confirmation of the theory in

another animal model; flies show the same de-

generative symptoms as mice when glycogen ac-

cumulates in neurons.

The Drosophila model will speed up the

process of obtaining genetic data and screening

for therapeutic molecules. “Soon we will be able

to perform a massive search for genes involved

in the pathological process and to better under-

stand it at the molecular level,” emphasizes Mi-

lán. “But the flies will also be useful to identify

pharmacological molecules that can cure,” he

adds.

The IRB Barcelona teams are designing sev-

eral experiments to identify therapeutic targets

that may be useful to prevent glycogen accumu-

lation in neurons..

B idding colleagues farewell is

commonplace at IRB Barcelona.

Many students travel to institu-

tions abroad to conduct part of their re-

search in another lab as an important stage

in their training.

Andrey Dyachenko, a ”la Caixa” PhD

fellow in Ernest Giralt’s Design, Synthe-

sis and Structure of Peptides and Proteins

Lab, got back in May from a five-month

stay at the Structure and Function Analysis

of the Protein Degradation Machinery Lab

at the Weizmann Institute in Israel.

“Dr. Michal Sharon is a world expert in

biological mass spectroscopy,” explains the

young Russian scientist. “She studied with

Carol Robinson, the pioneer in the field in

Oxford. To be in her lab was an invaluable

opportunity for me.”

During his stay, Andrey studied the in-

teraction between GroEL, a protein mem-

ber of the chaperonin family, proteins that

Harmful consequences of glycogen accumulation in neurons

“A fantastic opportunity for my scientific career”

SÒNIA ARMENGOU

LUCA TANCREDI BARONE

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in a foreign country was very stimulating.

“Twenty percent of Israel’s population is

of Russian origin, and even I have part of

my family there,” he says. “In general, it

was really easy to make friends. People

there say that since Jews were guests in

other places for such a long time, today

they want to be good hosts. I guess it must

be true.”

Israel also gave Andrey the oppor-

tunity to practice his favorite sport, rock

climbing. And when his family joined him,

they all went to explore the country.

“Ernest Giralt gives all his students

the opportunity to go abroad to further

their research,” concludes Andrey. “I be-

lieve this is a fantastic opportunity for the

career of a scientist. And for the lab it is

an excellent way to foster long-lasting col-

laborations.”.

assist in the correct folding of other pro-

teins, with the ATP molecule, commonly

referred to as the “cellular energy source.”

“One GroEL molecule can bind 14

ATP molecules, get energy from this proc-

ess and use it to develop its functions,” says

Andrey. “This is a very complex process

because each of 14 molecules binds with a

different strength, or ‘affinity.’ And study-

ing the process with mass spectrometry can

be tricky. This is why it was so important

to gain first-class experience in Sharon’s

lab.”

Besides the scientific benefits, living

EXCHANGES

Andrey Dyachenko with his daughter Alisa at an excursion to the Sinai peninsula next to the Red Sea

IN FOCUS


The issue of “What does science need

to flourish?,” the title of ISE’s (Initia-

tive for Science in Europe) Conference held on

3-4 May at the Institut d’Estudis Catalans and

co-organized by IRB Barcelona, is central at a

time of declining investment in research and

development, especially in countries like Spain.

Helga Nowotny, President of the Euro-

pean Research Council (ERC), was one of

the guests of a meeting that involved other

distinguished speakers, such as the Director

of the European Research Area, Octavi Quin-

tana Trias, the current President of ISE, Maria

Leptin, who is also Director of the European

Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO),

Pär Omling, President of the European Sci-

ence Foundation (ESF), Iain Mattaj, Director

General of the European Molecular Biology

Laboratory (EMBL), and Peter Tindemans,

Secretary General of Euroscience. Others who

took part in the discussion were the Catalan

Minister of Economy and Knowledge, Andreu

Mas-Colell, and Catalan Secretary of Univer-

sity and Knowledge, Antoni Castellà.

During the debate, the ERC emerged as a

reference funding institution. Since its founda-

tion within the 7th Framework Programme in

2007, many

scientists

embraced

the ERC

as a model

to follow.

“We work

according

to the prin-

ciples of excellence only,” says Nowotny.

“Every scientist aspires to be excellent, it’s in

their blood. I think our procedures, our whole

philosophy is geared to emphasise excellence.

We also try to give young scientists early sci-

entific independence, something badly needed

in Europe. We have to give them the possibility

to follow their own ideas, to put together their

teams.”

Especially praised by the scientists is the

independence shown by the Council. “This is

very important for us. From day one, we in-

sisted to the European Commission that we

alone select the panel members who evaluate,”

points out the Austrian-born sociologist. “In

order to fund according to excellence, you

need excellent panel members and evaluators


DNA damage response and human health appraised in the lastBarcelona Biomed Conferencewho can rec-

ognize it. Inde-

pendence and

excellence are

our most pre-

cious assets,”

insists Now-

otny.

Another

element that

characterizes

ERC has to do

with the hu-

man side of this

even and deter-

mined woman. “I read and reply to every mail,

and I take the complaints that I get - not many,

actually - very seriously. Sometimes the com-

plaints are unfounded, but I always go and find

out what happened, and then decide what can

be done to improve the situation if improve-

ment is needed. This is very important. We live

in different parts of Europe and we have differ-

ent scientific communities to which we belong,

so it’s very important to listen and respond to

their needs.”

Although the rejection rate for ERC grant

proposals stands at around 88%,

most European scientists are still

happy with the way ERC man-

ages its funds. “I think this is

because we try to give applicants

useful feedback,” says Nowotny.

“Several applicants have told me

that even if they don’t succeed,

the exercise in itself is a valuable

one. This is the right spirit.”

One of the results of the discussions within

the scientific community, discussions to which

ERC is very receptive, is the creation of a new

type of grant: the Synergy Grant.

“Among scientists, there is a genuine desire

to collaborate,” explains the ERC President.

“But they want to do so under conditions they

set themselves, that arise from their needs rath-

er than from the abstract principles of funding

agencies or of the commission. Synergy Grants

cover collaborations of up to four individuals.

Of course, the idea has to be an exception-

ally good one. Scientists have to prove to the

evaluators that a project can be carried out

only in the particular configuration that they

have designed. We have money for only up to

15 grants for this and the coming year, but we

received 710 applications. So we hit a nerve, we

identified a real need. For the future, depend-

ing on the budget for Horizon 2020, the next

Framework programme, which is currently

under discussion, we will have more money.”

Nowotny does not forget to praise IRB

Barcelona for its stunning number of ERC

Advanced Grants obtained a few months ago.

“Three out of 15 in Spain is a great result, it

lifts the scientific standing, and it boosts moral.

Once you start getting ERC grants, you keep

on getting them. This is my best wish for IRB

Barcelona.” .

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“Excellence and independence,our most precious assets,” declares ERC President

Helga Nowotny, heads the European Research Council since 2010. She took part in the ISE meeting in Barcelona last May

IRB Barcelona Director Joan J. Guinovart discussing with ISE President Maria Leptin

Méndez new PhD chairIRB Barcelona’s Internal Scientific Com-

mittee nominated Group Leader Raúl Méndez

as Chair of graduate training. These functions

were previously held by IRB Barcelona Direc-

tor Joan J. Guinovart.

Méndez’s tasks will be to supervise gradu-

ate training activities and act as the students’s

interface to mediate with the Institute. The

new Chair will sit on the Internal Scientific

Committee.

Clara Caminal and Patricia Nadal keep

their functions of interlocution with the stu-

dents, working in coordination with Raúl in

those issues requiring his advice or action.


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Scientist Travis H. Stracker in the Ge-

nomic Instability and Cancer Lab is

trying to “deconstruct cancer:” to

identify the combinations of defects in the

DNA damage response that trigger tumori-

genesis in general or that are sufficient for the

development of specific types of cancer.

His group has approached this theme

by studying mutations in DNA damage re-

sponse proteins that are involved in cell cy-

cle checkpoints, apoptosis and senescence.

In particular, they investigated the complex

system that should prevent mistakes during

DNA replication and cell division and safe-

guard cell integrity.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Stracker,

together with

colleagues in

the lab of John

H. J. Petrini

in the Memo-

rial Sloan Ket-

tering Cancer

Center in New

York, pin-

points some of

these combina-

tions.

Whether

or not a tumor

develops, they

show, depends

on the phase

of the cell cycle

in which the

damage occurs, which repair pathway com-

ponents are affected, and the status of genes

that trigger apoptosis and cell cycle arrest.

“This study shows that genomic instabil-

ity per se is not sufficient to initiate a tumour

and that we cannot generalize. We need to

study the origin of different kinds of cancer in

much greater depth. Although it is as difficult

as trying to find a needle in a haystack, we are

slowly identifying the parts that we should

focus on,” explains Stracker. The detection

of the main players that cause different kinds

of cancer could be of great interest for the

design of new diagnostic tools and specific

treatments. .

How did you select the speakers

for this conference?

We combined two types of

expertise. On one hand, we chose a group

of scientists who are doing very basic re-

search into fundamental mechanisms of how

genetic material is transmitted from genera-

tion to generation, for example

through the process of matu-

ration of eggs and sperm, and

how that translates into inheri-

tance of genetic traits. On the

other hand, we invited people

who are actively studying the

mechanisms by which cancer

therapies work. Meetings like

this are extremely valuable to

both ends of the spectrum. We

learn a lot about the pathways

that underlie malignancies when

we see the way that the thera-

peutic agents work. Conversely,

scientists that are interested in

designing therapeutic agents

learn a lot about what might

work because they can better understand the

underpinning mechanisms.

Is unstable DNA sufficient to lead to

cancer?

Cancers are indeed genetically unstable.

Chromosomes are unstable, pathways that

normally respond to DNA damage are often

impaired. But the facile assumption that if you

inhibit those pathways you predispose malig-

nancy is wrong. DNA damage response mech-

anisms evolved to ensure faithful inheritance

of genetic material, and on the other hand

to ensure the survival of cells in the face of

endogenous stresses. When you have defects

in this response, you lose fertility, but also,

excruciatingly important, you allow cells to

acquire changes that internally become malig-

nant. But primarily, cells become more prone

to die. When we created a mutation in one

of the central regulators of the DNA damage

response, the animals had fertility problems.

They were also unable to respond to insults

from the environment, but they never got

tumours. The reason is that the cells died at

a much greater rate when they acquired mu-

tations that allow them to become tumours.

So it’s just a question of statistics?

There is another layer of complexity. Our

cells are built from stem cells, so not very

many cells in our body are particularly old.

If you combine a mutation in the DNA repair

mechanism with a mutation that disrupts the

ability of cells to undergo programmed cell

death, a very important aspect of how cells

deal with damage, an aggressive cancer devel-

ops rapidly. Cell death pathways are a critical

component of the pathways that need to be

inactivated for cells to become malignant. .

Deconstructingcancer

DNA damage response and human health appraised in the lastBarcelona Biomed Conference

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SÒNIA ARMENGOU

The 28th edition of the Barcelona BioMed Conference series, sponsored by the BBVA

Foundation, was chaired by Travis Stracker of IRB Barcelona and John H. J. Petrini, of the

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York (USA). Travis used to work as Re-

search Associate in John Petrini’s lab. They investigated damage response proteins and their

influence on genome stability and tumorigenesis. In vivo asked Dr. Petrini few questions.


John Petrini and Travis Stracker co-chaired the last Barcelona BioMed Conference


E very year, IRB Barcelona and the Scientific Park hold a career

opportunities event for students and young researchers. “Ca-

reer Progression in Science - options beyond the bench” took

place June 7th, and among the guests who shared their success stories was

Mischa Dohler. A polyglot fluent in six languages, with a German father

and Russian mother, he comes from Jena, an East German city famous

for its philosophers and “for the oldest planetarium in the world,” as

he notes. He has had an adventurous life, and he shares it with In vivo.

“Originally, I wanted to study piano,” he recalls. “So I enrolled in

the conservatory in Moscow, where my mom was from. But two weeks

before beginning, my mom talked me out of it. Every year there are 400

good pianists, she told me, and only one makes it.” Mischa turned his

passion to physics, but when he went back to Germany in 1995 his exams

could not be recognized, so he began a new career studying telecommu-

nication engineering in Dresden.

After becoming bored with Dresden, he moved to London “because

it was a good place for telecoms,” he says. There, he did a PhD in Tele-

communications at King’s College, where he was also offered a lecture-

ship position. After some years at King’s, his relentlessness took him to

France, where he worked in a R&D departament in France Telecom,

and finally moved to Barcelona, where he lives with his wife. She is a

famous chemist working at the Alba synchrotron. He holds a position

at the Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC).

There he leads a group dealing with intelligent energy and smart grids.

But Mischa combines his scientific, albeit unconventional, facette

with his extraordinary entrepreneurship. Three and a half years ago,

he founded his own company, Worldsensing, dealing with sensors and

sensor networking.

“We have different product lines. One has to do with smart cities, so

for example we produce sensors for parking lots: we put sensors in each

parking space, so we know whether and where something is free. This

We say tomato The Tomato Genome Consortium has sequenced

and assembled the genomic DNA of this fruit species using a domesticated

variety, Heinz 1706. Scientists from several European centres, including Group Leader Modesto Orozco and other researchers from the joint

programme between the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and IRB Barcelona have joined forces to obtain and analyze the sequence of this fruit, which belongs to the family Solanaceae. The work has been published in the journal Nature..

Neuron mitochondria trafficking A team headed

by Group Leader Eduardo Soriano has published a study in Nature Communications describing a new family of six genes whose function regulates the movement and position of mitochondria in neurons. Many neurological conditions are caused by alterations of genes that control mitochondrial transport, a process that provides the energy required for cell functions. The new genes are highly expressed in the nervous system and have specific functions in the activity and viability of this system..

Histone characterised Carles Bonet Costa, Marta

Vilaseca, Ernest Giralt, Fernando Azorín and colleagues have characterized the post-translational modifications of linker Histone H1 in Drosophila. Through a combination of two mass spectrometry methods, they illustrated the high structural heterogeneity of the protein, the hierarchical phosphorylation of several non-CDK sites at the N-terminal domain of the protein and its contribution to heterochromatin organization and function during mitosis. The results were published in the Journal of Proteomics in July. .

Alzheimer’s biomarker The protein ECSIT (evolutionarily

conserved signalling intermediate in Toll pathway), a signal transduction mediator, might act as a molecular sensor in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. The model, developed by Patrick Aloy, Montse Soler and other colleagues at IRB Barcelona, integrates seemingly controversial hypotheses for familial and sporadic forms of the disease and envisions ECSIT as a biomarker to guide future therapies to halt or prevent Alzheimer’s disease. The scientists proposed this hypothesis in BioEssays in July and the article comes with a video abstract..

SCIENCE BITES

➲

➲

➲

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The selection of the new group of postdoctoral fellows supported by EU Marie Curie Actions has taken place and a new set of postdocs will begin to work at IRB Barcelona next fall.

From a pool of more than one hundred applicants, 22 candidates were short-listed and interviewed on 16-17 July by a ten-member evaluation committee. The selection panel was made up of five female and five male scientists; four were non-Spanish nationals, and one came from the private sector.

The new postdoctoral fellows represent eight nationalities and each will work on a project in one of the Institute’s labs. Their fellowships will be cofunded by EU and IRB Barcelona.

The programme will continue in the future. The proposal that the Institute presented for the 2012 Call for the new Marie Curie Fellowships has been positively evaluated and in the next months negotiations will be held to finalize the agreement..

Dohler:“We should leverage more on our potential as scientists”

Welcome to the new COFUND postdocs

as scientists”

Mischa Dohler was one of the invited speakers in June for the“Career Progression in Science - options beyond the

bench” event. This picture was taken in Shanghai.

SPOTLIGHT


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New EMBO member Group

Leader Raúl Méndez was nominated

new EMBO member last May. EMBO

elects new members annually on the

basis of scientific excellence. Currently,

almost 1,550 life scientists can boast this

exclusive membership.

New ICREA Academia awardee The 2011 edition of the

ICREA Academia award, an initiative

to foster excellence in research among

teaching and research staff of state uni-

versities in Catalonia, has recognized

the scientific career of Group Leader

Modesto Orozco, full professor of the

University of Barcelona.

Two projects awarded in rare diseases Manuel Palacín’s

and Joan J. Guinovart’s projects on rare

diseases received funding from the Fun-

dación Ramon Areces. Palacín’s research

addresses lysinuric protein intolerance,

one of the rarest aminoacidurias that, ac-

cording to the literature, has killed about

200 people. The second project works

with the hypothesis that glycogen ac-

cumulation is the root cause of Lafora

disease, a rare type of epilepsy that af-

fects adolescents and has no cure. The

Foundation will award 100,000€ to each

of the projects.

Alba’s dawn Scientists from

Miquel Coll’s group had the privilege

to inaugurate the new macromolecular

crystallography beamline Xaloc in the

Alba synchrotron this month. The prox-

imity and accessibility of the new facility

is very promising for the future, say the

scientists. A new Director of the facility,

the Italian-born physicist Caterina Bis-

cari, has just been appointed.

European Foundation for the study of diabetes The

project “The role of glycogen metabo-

lism in the pancreatic beta-cell” in Joan

J. Guinovart’s lab will receive funding

from the European Foundation for the

Study of Diabetes and from the Danish

pharmaceutical company Novo Nord-

isk. The eight projects awarded in this

year’s edition will begin in September.

Jose Tormo prize Bryn

Fenwick will be awarded by the Span-

ish Association for Biochemistry and

Molecular Biology (SEBBM) the 1,000€

Jose Tormo prize in its next session in

September. The research that earned the

important recognition was performed in

Xavier Salvatella’s lab.

IN BRIEF


Dohler:“We should leverage more on our potential as scientists”information in real time is

useful for the drivers and

for the city. We also produce

sensors for buildings. For

example, in the new harbor

of Barcelona, they use our

sensors to monitor possible

collapses.”

The company has been

affected by the construc-

tion crisis, but it has broken

even. “This field is growing

like computers 30 years ago,

and there is a lot of competition. Sensors will be everywhere, including

in your toilets to monitor your health or in your plants to tell you when

it’s time to water them.”

What drives a successful scientist to dive into the world of entrepre-

neurship? “Money clearly plays a role,” answers Mischa honestly. “The

prospect of having an easy life one day, and being able to do things which

before were merely a hobby, is attractive. I always tell my people, life

is not about money, life is about a lot of money! It means: be generous

on a daily basis, but have high aims. As scientists, we have an enormous

knowledge potential to leverage on and make money, and we are often

not even aware of it. Many of the rich and successful people in the world

don’t even have 10% of the know-how my guys at CTTC have!”

A previous attempt to set up a company in London failed. “It’s a

bit like an unfinished business. I still have a challenge to show that this

is doable. We do not know how Worldsensing will end up, but we are

trying. This is what makes me sleep four hours a night.”

A person with this extensive experience has suggestions for young

scientists at IRB Barcelona. “First of all, if you do something, do it be-

cause you like it. If you don’t like it, just don’t do it,” he recommends.

“Secondly, I always advise people not to collect title after title: master

after master, postdoc after postoc, just to kill time. It does not bring

anything. I know postdocs who have been ‘postdocking’ until the age

of 35-40. They suffer a lot , you have the stress of finding a new position

in a new city with a new life all the time. I say: take all the stress once at

the beginning, but then try to find a permanent position. Maybe not in

Spain, but just do it, and look for new challenges in life.”.

Some of the scientists’ fingers at the Institute are not just dexterous with tubes and pipettes.

Salvatore Bongarzone, from Miquel Coll’s lab, and Suvi Aivio from Travis Stracker’s lab have another passion outside IRB Barcelona: music. So they decided to find out if others shared their love for playing an instrument.

And they found out that music was in the veins of many colleagues at IRB Barcelona. All together, they decided to constitute the IRB Big Band. The group is now ready to start and practise.

The group is open to all who want to join. Musica, maestro!.

IRB Barcelona,hit it!

Three of the members of the IRB Big Band pose in the newly inaugurated cafeteria of the Park. From

left to right, Nareg Djabrayan, saxphone; Jesús Herraiz, drums; Salvatore Bongarzone,trumpet.

as scientists”

Mischa Dohler was one of the invited speakers in June for the“Career Progression in Science - options beyond the

bench” event. This picture was taken in Shanghai.

NEW AT IRB BARCELONA

ON THE MOVEJordi Silvestre-Ryan (Sacramento, CA, USA) is about to fly back to the West Coast of the United States. After one

year as Research Assistant in Xavier Salvatella’s Molecular Biophysics Lab, this half American, and half Catalan young bio-

engineer is about to head to the University of California in San Francisco to obtain a PhD in biophysics. “This year has been

especially good for me,” he declares. “In the lab, my work was strictly computational. I have been developing a method to

calculate the structure of disordered proteins.” Both personal and scientific reasons lead him to choose IRB Barcelona. “After

my undergraduate in Berkeley, I wanted to spend a year in Barcelona because this is where part of my family comes from. The

Institute was the best choice because it offered the best biophysics programme, and this is what I was looking for.” Jordi will begin his PhD in September.

In vivo, issue 18. 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.

Editor: Luca Tancredi Barone. Contributors: Sònia Armengou, Sarah Sherwood. Legal deposit: MU-29-2012. This document has been printed on recycled paper. To subscribe or unsubscribe from In Vivo, send an

e-mail: [email protected]. © IRB Barcelona 2012.

P amela Feliciano, senior editor at Nature Genetics, visited IRB Barcelona scientists

last May. In the seminar she to students, she presented useful suggestions and tips

for publishing with her journal. Nature Genetics receives around 1500 papers per

year. Of those, 83% are returned without review, and only 13% get accepted, which, in 2011,

amounted to 196 papers.

“I usually summarize the type of papers we accept for publication with a motto: Science that changes the way many researchers think,” explains

Feliciano. “This comes from a combination of three factors: scientific advance, validity, breadth. In other words, we look for papers that bring the

field a big step forward, that are technically very sound, keeping in mind the state of the art, and that are wide-reaching, so that many types of sci-

entists will be interested.”

Feliciano is happy to be on the other side of the bench after a PhD from Stanford University on evolutionary genetics of natural variation in

three-spine stickleback fish, and a postdoc fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where she worked on planar cell polarity in the

ventral epidermis of Drosophila embryos.

“I like my job, but sometimes it can be tricky. Once I very reluctantly returned a paper that I liked, but the reviewers didn’t. I had the impression

that we might have picked the wrong reviewers. I could have gone against all three referees and published anyway, but I felt uncomfortable. What

ended up happening was that the author appealed, something that a scientist can always do. I finally took the paper back – and we overruled the

referees. I think in that case the referees were setting the bar too high.”.

“To publish with us, your science has to change the way researchers think”

After five years first as a PhD student in Llluís Ribas’ lab studying the epigenetics of the malaria parasite, Valerie Margarita Crowley (Toronto, Canada, 1981) is ready for a leap forward in her career. She is about to leave for Princeton, USA,

for a postdoc. “I like my topic of research because there’s a lot of basic biology we still don’t understand,” she says, “and at the

same time malaria is a major worry for society.” The focus of Valerie’s research is the ingenious way the parasite uses to adapt

to different environments. “Ten percent of its genome is epigenetically regulated,” she explains, and “this is a common survival

strategy used by many pathogens. I studied in particular the way three genes are expressed and how their expression affects the

survival of the Plasmodium.” Valerie was impressed by Barcelona. “It was actually much better than I expected,” she mantains. Maybe less money is spent

for research in Europe than in North America. “But for good science you don’t necessarily need big money,” she affirms.


Petra Mikolcevic (Zagreb, Croatia, 1982) just joined IRB Barcelona from Innsbruck, Austria, where she worked on

her PhD in molecular biology. She joins Ángel R. Nebreda’s Signalling and Cell Cycle Lab as a fresh Marie Curie COFUND

postdoctoral fellow. Her research so far was focused on a protein belonging to the cyclin-dependent kinase, CDK16. “I bio-

chemically characterized and studied the CDK16 mouse knockout phenotype,” she explains. CDK16 is essential for mouse

spermatogenesis. In her new laboratory, she will follow the same pattern of research, this time studying the RINGO A pro-

tein, a cyclin dependent kinase regulator. “What brought me to Barcelona was the finger of destiny,” says Petra jokingly. “I

wanted to study this protein, and I knew how good was Ángel’s research. When I found out he had just moved to Barcelona, the city I really wanted

to move to, I thought it was inevitable for me to come to IRB Barcelona.”

PHO

TOS O

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E: LUCA TAN

CREDI BARO

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Pamela Feliciano joined Nature Genetics in 2009

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