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Betevé TV’s “Notícies Vespre” (Evening News) has broadcasted an interview with Jordi Durán, researcher with the Metabolic Engineering and Diabetes Therapy Lab at IRB Barcelona, about research into rare diseases.
This lab carries out research into Lafora disease, a genetic neurodegenerative disorder. “The aim of this work is to explain why neurons degenerate and die. What happens is that glucose, a cellular product accumulates, and this causes the neurons to progressively die, causing neurodegeneration,” says Durán.
Of note, all these discoveries being made about rare diseases can be extrapolated to more common diseases.
Link to: Betevé TV (minutes 43:30- 46:24)
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).
