Life and Matter Sciences Activities

Health

Online symposium MIT- Ramón Areces Foundation. The power of Nanotechnology

The Ramón Areces Foundation and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) held their fourth annual symposium, this time online, to present to Spanish society the avant-garde of what is being developed at this leading Boston-based research center. Vladimir Bulovic, founder and Director of MIT.nano; the Spanish Tomás Palacios, Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT; and Jesús del Álamo, Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, explained in two sessions the promising advances that are taking place in the field of nanotechnology. This symposium was coordinated and moderated by Eduardo Garrido, from MIT Corporate Relations. 

Biomimetic sensors: their use and potential in Medicine

Fundación Ramón Areces and Springer Nature celebrate the 12th edition of their conference and debate series in Science. Both institutions set out to analyze the role of biomimetic sensors in the diagnose and treatment of diseases. In order to do this, they brought together four leading researchers in this field: George Maillaras, Professor of Technology at Prince Philip of the University of Cambridge; Ana Maiques, Founding Partner and Executive Director of Neuroelectrics; Rabia Tugce Yazicigil, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University; and Marc Güell Cargol, from the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences at Pompeu Fabra University. Erika Pastrana, from Nature Journals, Applied and Chemistry, Nature Research, coordinated the day and moderated the discussion between the speakers.

Ion beam therapy. Clinical and technological challenges for the next decade

Oncologists recognize that no two tumors are the same. In the fight against this disease different treatments are combined, depending on the patient, in a clear trend towards treatment personalization and precision medicine. In this scenario, ion beam therapies come into play. This scientific meeting discussed the current situation of proton and ion beam therapy, both from a clinical and technological point of view. Felipe Calvo, Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Navarra, delivered the first lecture, while Frédérick Bordry, Head of Operations and Technology of the Accelerators at CERN, delivered the second one. 

Magnetic resonance imaging in time and space

Lucio Frydman, Director of the Department of Chemical Physics and Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Sciences, delivered this online conference from his Department in Rehovot (Israel). He presented a brief overview of how the evolution of MRI occurred throughout the decades, including contributions in this area that emerged (and are emerging) from the Weizmann Institute.  

Yeasts: At the Intersection between Systems Biology and Biomedicine

This meeting, halfway between Systems Biology and Biomedicine, was attended by researchers from Spain, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and addressed the results achieved so far in the field of yeasts. The American geneticist Jef Boeke, creator of the first synthetic yeast chromosome, delivered the inaugural lecture and stated that yeasts are unexpected allies in several pathologies, including cancer

How to live to age well, even in pandemic times

José Viña, Professor of Physiology at the University of Valencia; Manuel Castillo, from the University of Granada; Mónica de la Fuente, Professor of Physiology at the Complutense University; and Leocadio Rodríguez-Mañas, Scientific Director of CIBER Fragility and Healthy Aging-CIBERFES, of the Carlos III Health Institute, starred in this online colloquium that addressed aspects related to satisfactory aging. The main conference was delivered by José Viña, who stated that it was necessary to introduce reforms in the health system to adapt it to these new times marked by the aging of the population. The current healthcare system, he said, is out of date and out of reality.

Innovative challenges in Hospital Pharmacy within the National Health System

Coordinated by the scholar of the Royal National Academy of Pharmacy, Honorio Bando, this conference meant to be an update of the hospital pharmacy and the clinical pharmacist, and looked at new technologies, digital transformation and scientific advances that have been taking place at international level. Speakers: Olga Delgado, President of the Spanish Society of Hospital Pharmacy; Miguel Ángel Calleja, Head of the Hospital Pharmacy service at the Virgen Macarena University Hospital in Seville; and José Manuel Martínez Sesmero, Head of the Hospital Pharmacy service at the San Carlos Clinical University Hospital in Madrid.