New award for the Reneurish project against stroke, promoted by UB students
The Reneurish project, developed by students from the University of Barcelona to facilitate recovery after ischaemic stroke, has been awarded at the new edition of the Frontiers in Scientific Research Summit (FSRS). This synthetic biology forum for university research groups is the United Kingsom’s largest forum and it took place at Imperial College London from 7 to 9 March 2025.
With the slogan “From vision to innovation: designing the future of bioscience”, this scientific meeting with the world of biotechnology and innovation in research brought together representatives from 19 universities from the UK and the rest of Europe. Under the new competitive call, the student Jaume Ros, from the UB’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and representative of the Reneurish project team, has received the first prize for the best presentation and the second prize for the best poster.
The Reneurish project, developed by students from the University of Barcelona to facilitate recovery after ischaemic stroke, has been awarded at the new edition of the Frontiers in Scientific Research Summit (FSRS). This synthetic biology forum for university research groups is the United Kingsom’s largest forum and it took place at Imperial College London from 7 to 9 March 2025.
With the slogan “From vision to innovation: designing the future of bioscience”, this scientific meeting with the world of biotechnology and innovation in research brought together representatives from 19 universities from the UK and the rest of Europe. Under the new competitive call, the student Jaume Ros, from the UB’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and representative of the Reneurish project team, has received the first prize for the best presentation and the second prize for the best poster.
Specifically, the team behind the Reneurish project is formed by Ares Font Guixé, Santiago Ramos Bartolomé, Sergi Fornós Zapater, Marc Fabrellas i Monsech, Marc Magem Planàs, Alba Cartró Peris and Emma Esquirol Albalà, from the Faculty of Biology; Andrea Camí Bonet, Jaume Ros Miralles and Luna Goulet, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences; Laila Olivella Berrabhi, from the Faculty of Economics and Business; Irene Agudo Zamora, from the Faculty of Physics, and Àlex Roger Moya, from Pompeu Fabra University.
Improving patients’ recovery after a stroke
The Reneurish project proposes an innovative gene therapy based on the use of stem cells to improve the functional recovery of ischaemic stroke patients. The aim is to modify stem cells used in transplants so that they overexpress a molecule that increases neuronal plasticity and enhances the creation of synapses. In this way, it is hoped to increase the clinical application options for this type of therapy in stroke patients and to optimize the integration of the transplanted tissue and the regeneration of the affected part of the brain.
The Reneurish project also won the gold medal at the iGEM 2024 (International Genetically Engineered Machine) synthetic biology competition, the world’s largest synthetic biology competition. Previously, the team of young researchers had also won the gold medal in the 2022 and 2023 editions of the same competition with the Vesiprod and AlgaGenix projects, respectively.
The project has been supported by the offices of the vice-rector for Research; for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Transfer; for Students and University Life; and for Internationalization Policy. This year, the winning project has been developed entirely in UB research centres, under the supervision of experts Daniel Tornero, professor at the Department of Biomedicine of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Ana Sevilla, professor at the Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology of the Faculty of Biology, and with the supervision of Gemma Marfany, professor at the UB’s Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics.
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The Reneurish project has been developed by students from the University of Barcelona to facilitate recovery after ischaemic stroke.
Reneurish valso won the gold medal at the iGEM 2024 (International Genetically Engineered Machine) synthetic biology competition, the world’s largest synthetic biology competition.
