Researchers at IRB Barcelona and at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) have renewed their collaboration agreement first signed in September 2007 which aims to strengthen investigation into computational biology. Coordinated by Modesto Orozco, IRB Barcelona researcher and director of the Life Sciences Department of the BSC, the programme involves ICREA professors Patrick Aloy (IRB Barcelona), and Victor Guallar (BSC). They will be joined by ICREA researcher Xavier Salvatella (IRB Barcelona), ICREA professor David Torrents (BSC) and by Juan Fernández Recio (BSC).

Technological breakthroughs in recent decades have placed computational biology in a privileged position in the quest for answers to specific biological questions. In this context, the programme seeks to concentrate the efforts of the researchers at the two institutions and bring about synergies between them. Its aim is to strengthen research in this field, to attract the most outstanding talent worldwide, and to facilitate the transfer of the discoveries and technology developed to the industrial sector.

To achieve their objectives, the two institutions will continue to offer, in a coordinated manner, access to their resources. On the one hand, IRB Barcelona will provide those working in the programme access to its facilities, scientific platforms and services, including the Experimental Bioinformatics Lab (EBL, acronym in English). On the other hand, the BSC will open up its doors to the supercomputer Marenostrum, as well as to other computational facilities in the centre.

Funded equally by IRB Barcelona and the BSC, the programme is supervised by an external scientific committee, charged with evaluating and following up the research activities undertaken by the two institutions.