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Press & Communications Section Head
Tel.+34 93 40 37255
nahia.barberia@irbbarcelona.org
Wide coverage in the media about a breakthrough by Ernest Giralt’s group that was presented yesterday in Angewandte Chemie. Specifically, this group has developed and patented a peptide shuttle able to transport substances to the brain. This shuttle has the capacity to cross the blood-brain barrier, a natural defence structure that prevents substances from passing into the brain, thus protecting it against infection. However, this barrier is also a severe obstacle for therapeutics as 98% of promising drugs for the treatment of central nervous system cannot cross it. “Many companies could recover promising molecules that were once discarded and attach them to our shuttles,” comment the researchers.
About IRB Barcelona
The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) pursues a society free of disease. To this end, it conducts multidisciplinary research of excellence to cure cancer and other diseases linked to ageing. It establishes technology transfer agreements with the pharmaceutical industry and major hospitals to bring research results closer to society, and organises a range of science outreach activities to engage the public in an open dialogue. IRB Barcelona is an international centre that hosts 400 researchers and more than 30 nationalities. Recognised as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence since 2011, IRB Barcelona is a CERCA centre and member of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).
