David Garcia

Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC)

The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) conducts excellent interdisciplinary research at the frontiers of engineering and life sciences in order to generate new knowledge by putting together fields like nanomedicine, biophysics, biotechnology, tissue engineering and the applications of health information technology. IBEC was established in 2005 by the Ministries of Innovation, Universities and Enterprises and Health of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Autonomous Government of Catalonia), the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC). Today, IBEC's relationship with the UB and UPC researchers continues to operate under a framework agreement signed in 2008. The institute currently has 22 research groups and 318 researchers and staff from 37 different countries. The location of IBEC in the Parc Científic de Barcelona offers a highly stimulating biomedical environment in which the institute can work closely with organisations from the public and private sector interested in the biomedical application of nanotechnology. IBEC is part of a new wave of research initiatives set up in the last decade, with shared interests and points of view concerning how to advance the frontiers of knowledge in experimental science to benefit clinical and biomedical research. The common denominator shared by these new initiatives is their focus on the enormous challenge of how to make life science quantitative on any scale, taking full advantage of the unprecedented power of the convergence between nano, bio and ICT. The knowledge that exists in the IBEC research groups is structured in three broad avenues of knowledge: nanomedicine, cellular and tissue engineering and ICT for health. These are placed at the service of science and society to progress in three major application areas, namely: Bioengineering for Future Medicine, Bioengineering for Regenerative Therapies, Bioengineering for Active Ageing