IRB Barcelona to participate in €6-millions project to research ageing of stem cells
Researcher Patrick Aloy leads the group that will generate a dynamic map of the interactions of genes and proteins.
By Biocat
The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) is a member of the SyStemAge European consortium, led by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) of Germany and devoted to research on the ageing of stem cells. The project falls under the EU’s 7th Framework Program and will receive €6 millions in funding through 2017.
IRB Barcelona’s participation in SyStemAge is through the Structural Bioinformatics and Network Biology research group, headed by ICREA research fellow Patrick Aloy. The ten groups participating in the project aim to identify molecular components, genes and cell signaling pathways involved in stem-cell ageing. Focusing on this aim, Aloy’s group will work to integrate biological and clinical data needed to generate a dynamic map of the interactions and biomarkers associated with the two diseases under study: myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and chronic lymphatic leukemia (B-CLL). The former, previously known as preleukemia, causes the bone marrow to generate insufficient red blood cells, while B-CLL produces white blood cells that can't carry out their immune functions.
Dr. Patrick Aloy explains that the team will work “to provide an integrated overview and contribute to the analysis of how these two diseases progress and the body’s natural ageing process." Coordinator of the European consortium Anne-Claude Gavin affirms that the SyStemAge team "is a solid group that is well positioned" as it includes three hospitals specializing in these two diseases, basic research laboratories, two systems biology research groups specializing in modeling complex biomedical systems, and two biotechnology companies.
In 2013, various Catalan research centers and companies in the life sciences arena have announced their participation in important European projects. According to information gathered by Biocat, this is the case of the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and its joint leadership of two alliances of European biomedical centers, Argon Pharma and their project to create new oral medicines for minority cancers, and the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) leading a European clinical trial on eye drops to treat diabetic retinopathy in collaboration with BCN-Peptides. It is also noteworthy that, between 2007 and 2012, Catalan scientists received one hundred Starting, Advanced and Proof-of-concept grants from the European Research Council (ERC).
More information is available on the IRB Barcelona website.