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Ciutat de Barcelona Awards to Science

This evening is the Ciutat de Barcelona Awards ceremony, where science, technology and innovation have their recognition

Every year Barcelona City Council celebrate the Ciutat de Barcelona Awards in order to reward the creation, research and quality production made in Barcelona by artists or Barcelona’s institutions and organizations than promote or produce them.

The awards represent each program of Insitut de Cultura, including science, technology and innovation that is promoted by Direcció de Creativitat I Innovació, which are recognized with the awards Life Science and Experimental Science and Technology.

Ciutat de Barcelona Award to Life Science

The award has gone to Dr. Pura Muñoz-Cánoves, ICREA researcher at the University Pompeu Fabra for her work published in Nature, which indentifies for first time a physiological mechanism involved in the process for irreversible aging of cells muscle in older organisms.

Dr. Muñoz have recived the award with great joy and says that “it recognize the work by my research team in Universitat Pompeu Fabra. For me it’s very important to say that there is a great team of senior and junior researchers behind me, so this award goes to all of them. I would not have done it without their excellent work and daily effort.”

Ciutat de Barcelona Award to Experimental Science and Technology

The jury wanted to show their appreciation to Dr. Ernest Giralt Lledó, professor of organic chemistry at the Universitat de Barcelona and researcher at the Institute for Biomedical Research of Barcelona for the development of chemical technology to use wasp poison in chemotherapy.

" Wasp poison contains a very toxic substance to cells. It would be interesting to use this substance to kill tumor cells in patients, but the problem is that it also kills healthy cells. Together with my colleagues, we have designed and developed a large molecule that contains this toxic substance hidden inside and attached to this large molecule by a "special" chemical bond. This molecular construction can wander through the body without the toxic substance is released but that when the large molecule reaches the tumor the "special" bond is broken and the substance is released, killing all tumor cells around them "Dr. Giralt explains.

                                                                                                                                               

Dr. Giralt also had words of thanks to the knowledge that has been recognized with the award of the experimental sciences and technology, "working in Barcelona for a scientist is a privilege. The city and its people are a constant stimulus for creativity and research knowledge. 

Publication date: Tuesday, 10 February 2015
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