IDIBAPS continues growing with the CELLEX Biomedical Research Centre, located at the Faculty of Medicine
This morning the CELLEX Biomedical Research Centre was presented: a new space where the professionals of the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) will be able to continue developing their potential. The new installation has five storeys fitted out with the most modern technologies necessary to develop an innovative research on biomedicine; these new facilities are located at the south wing of the Faculty of Medicine of the UB. During the presentation, attended by the Catalan minister for Economy and Knowledge, Andreu Mas-Colell; the Catalan minister for Health, Boi Ruiz; the rector of the UB, Dídac Ramírez; the president of the private CELLEX Foundation, Pere Mir; and the vice-rector for Research, Innovation and Transfer of the UB, Jordi Alberch, all of them accompanied by the director of IDIBAPS, Ramon Gomis, and other authorities, a visit to the installation has been performed. A seminar closes the inauguration event in the afternoon.
This morning the CELLEX Biomedical Research Centre was presented: a new space where the professionals of the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) will be able to continue developing their potential. The new installation has five storeys fitted out with the most modern technologies necessary to develop an innovative research on biomedicine; these new facilities are located at the south wing of the Faculty of Medicine of the UB. During the presentation, attended by the Catalan minister for Economy and Knowledge, Andreu Mas-Colell; the Catalan minister for Health, Boi Ruiz; the rector of the UB, Dídac Ramírez; the president of the private CELLEX Foundation, Pere Mir; and the vice-rector for Research, Innovation and Transfer of the UB, Jordi Alberch, all of them accompanied by the director of IDIBAPS, Ramon Gomis, and other authorities, a visit to the installation has been performed. A seminar closes the inauguration event in the afternoon.
In his speech, the rector of the UB remarked that “the University draws private funding thanks to its high competitiveness and the quality of its research”. In this sense, he spoke about a new “ambitious and active” fund-raising programme that will win private funds from patronages, sponsorships and agreements.
The modelling and equipping of the new areas were possible, mainly, thanks to a donation of about nine million euro made by the CELLEX Foundation to the University of Barcelona. At the same time, the University handed over four storeys of its installations to IDIBAPS. To equip the laboratories about 810,000 euros were spent. To this amount of money one million euros was added, this sum was provided by IDIBAPS to complete the purchase of scientific equipment. IDIBAPSʼ contribution was co-funded by the Fund ERDF of the Government of Catalonia and a special grant that the health research institutes recognised by the Carlos III Health Institute received.
Thanks to this collaboration between public and private sector, 5,150 m2 of laboratories, scientific and technological services and additional areas at the five storeys of the south wing of the Faculty of Medicine of the UB have been remodelled and equipped. To be exact, the fifth storey will house UB research areas. According to the vice-rector Jordi Alberch, on one hand, the Cell Production Unity, equipped with five clean rooms, will be located there; and on the other hand, some services of the Scientific and Technological Centers of the University of Barcelona (CCiTUB), that will support IDIBAPS researchers and will be opened to the scientific community. The works to adapt the storey were funded by the CELLEX Foundation and the equipment funding came from the different grants got by the UB research groups. The main grant, about one million euro, was given by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. The vice-rector also remarked that this is a project to establish synergies and that "a good research is necessary to improve education and assistance".
IDIBAPS is a pioneer research centre affiliated with the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, the University of Barcelona and the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona-Spanish National Research Council (IIBB-CSIC); IDIBAPS is also part of the Catalan Research Centres Institute (CERCA) of the Government of Catalonia. IDIBAPS is one of the most important biomedical research centres in Catalonia and Spain as the number of publications made by its researchers (more than 900 original articles published in international journals) and its annual budget (about 20 million euro) prove. Besides, it is at the top of the raking made by the Carlos III Health Institute which includes the eighteen health research institutes recognised all over the country.
The new IDIBAPS areas, which will be named as CELLEX Biomedical Research Centre, hold more than 200 researchers from 23 different research groups. Although the building will be equipped with state-of-the-art technologies and facilities, the original external architecture will be conserved because this nineteenth-century building that belongs to the Faculty of Medicine of the UB is a heritage site named by the Barcelona City Council. The new installation will have IDIBAPS equipment to research on the different areas in which the Institute is divided: oncology, cardiology, autoimmunity, infections, respiratory diseases, neurosciences and neurodegenerative diseases, nephrology and urology.
The CELLEX Foundation, a ten years old entity, supports the scientific research developed in Catalonia and fosters scientific talent. Currently, it funds 27 projects with a total sum of 55 million euro. With this number, it becomes the main sponsorship of Catalan research. The CELLEX Biomedical Research Centre strengthens IDIBAPSʼ International competitiveness in a difficult moment for research in Europe and all over the world. A stronger Institute will increase its possibilities of getting national and International economic resources to continue developing an innovative research.