IRB Barcelona is to participate in the two-week (10-21 July) scientific summer camp through the project “Drosophila melanogaster: a model to study human disease”.
This initiative is organised by the Catalunya-La Pedrera Foundation, in collaboration with first-class research centres all over Catalonia, including BIST centres.
Today marks the start of the second edition of the Barcelona International Youth Science Challenge (BIYSC), aimed at stimulating scientific talent among young students worldwide. Held from 10 to 21 July, this international summer camp offers 100 secondary school students aged between 16 and 18 years old the opportunity to work in small groups on different scientific and technological challenges (all conducted in English). The proposals come from 10 international research centres based in Catalonia and involved in cutting-edge research, including IRB Barcelona.
IRB Barcelona is hosting 10 students from all over the world to work hands-on in the laboratory with the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. “The main purpose of this project is to introduce D. melanogaster as a very good model to study human diseases that has been used in biological research for more than a century,” explains Celia Santos, PhD student with the Development and Growth Control Laboratory. Celia is coordinating IRB Barcelona’s project, together with Lada Murcia, PhD with in the same lab, which is lead by ICREA Research Professor and expert in developmental biology Marco Milán.
Learn more with the Meet Our Scientists’ video “Our relative the fly”
The Institute’s project will allow participants to use this model to study the main mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases, while learning aspects of biology, genetics, medicine and biomedicine.
During their time at the Institute, students will mimic the long process from basic research to clinical application of the knowledge gained. “They will learn by experience. One of the best things of the BIYSC is that the students get to be in a lab and work on a real scientific project. It is not just a classroom experiment,” highlights Lada Murcia.
First, students will learn about the many tools researchers use to study the putative genes involved in neurodegenerative diseases. Then, based on the published literature, they will form hypotheses about the genes and processes involved. And finally, they will propose a working model and search for a way to reduce the phenotypes of these disorders.
IRB Barcelona’s project also offers participants a great opportunity to mix with peers who share the same passion, attend scientific lectures given by leading researchers, and debate the most relevant international discoveries and scientific advances.
The newspapers Ara and La Vanguardia have published an article on the exhibition "Art made of science. Microspheres" by Ayse Gül Süter, Artist in Residence from IRB Barcelona, which is being shown in the old operating theatre of the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site. Gül Süter’s work is a particular choreography of diseased and healthy cells that has been inspired from the observation of tissues of the liver, eyes, skin and lungs.
Link to Ara
From 12/02 to 12/03, the Artist in Residence, Ayse Güll Süter, will be exhibiting her work: “Art made of Science-Microspheres” at the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site (Recinto Modernista de Sant Pau).
This project has been done in collaboration with the Fundación Quo Artis, the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site, and IRB Barcelona.
From 7 to 11 February, the general public will have the opportunity to participate in activities related to ageing, nanoscience and climate change, among others.
IRB Barcelona will be taking part in the Biennal event through three initiatives that target the public.
