18th IBEC SYMPOSIUM

Bioengineering for precision medicine

October 16th and 17th · Barcelona

The 18th IBEC annual Symposium brings together high-profile international experts for an open forum for interdisciplinary discussions and networking. This year the symposium is dedicated to Bioengineering for precision medicine, one of IBEC’s three major application areas.

All scientific community is invited to participate. Attendees from IBEC and abroad are welcome to present their research or projects in poster format. Moreover, some of these contributions will be selected by the scientific committee for an oral flash presentation.

This year, the Symposium will also have a day exclusively dedicated to posters. The 16^th of October the Symposium will be celebrated at the AXA Auditorium. The poster session will be celebrated the day after, 17^th of October at Sant Pau Recinte Modernista.

Important deadlines 2025:

Abstracts submission deadline: July 25th Notification of acceptance: September 10th Registration deadline: October 1st

venue:

Symposium:
16th October
Auditori L’Illa, Av. Diagonal, 547, Barcelona

Poster session:
17th October
Sant Pau Recinte Modernista

SPEAKERS

DIRECTOR'S PRESENTATION

josep Samitier

Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC)

INVITED speakers

Melike Lakadamyali

University of Pennsylvania Selected ICREA Professor 2025

Evrim Acar Ataman

Simula

Yuval Ebenstein

Tel Aviv University Selected ICREA Professor 2025

Alejandro Torres-Sánchez

EMBL Barcelona

Templates & Resources

Speaker Presentation Template
Download the template here:

2025_IBECSymposium_Plantilla_Compressed

Scientific Poster Template
Download the template here:

IBEC branded scientificposter A0

PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME

Day 1 – October 16

08:00 – 09:00	Registration
09:00 – 09:15	Opening ceremony
09:15 – 09:45	Director’s presentation
09:45 – 10:20	Melike Lakadamyali · University of Pennsylvania Selected ICREA Professor 2025 Super-resolution imaging of chromatin structure in health disease
10:20 – 11:00	Flash presentations. Session 1 Ainoa Tejedera-Villafranca – Enhancing drug assessment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy using organ-on-a-chip technology and nanoplasmonic biosensing of myotube integrity Anna Vilche – Microphysiological Modeling of Human CNS Trauma and Nanoparticle-Based Therapy Evaluation Gal·la Vinyes i Bassols – High-Throughput 3D Bioprinted Human Blood-Brain Barrier: Advancing In Vitro Modeling and Drug Screening for Neurodegenerative Diseases Xiomara Fernández Garibay – Calcitriol ameliorates myotonia in patient-derived DM1 skeletal muscle models via an MBNL1-independent mechanism Peter Sperling – 13C NMR metabolomics to assess glucose metabolism in BxPC3 and HepG2 cell lines Agnieszka Nikitiuk – A preclinical platform for therapeutic testing: 3D tissue-engineered models of head and neck cancer Júlia Alcàcer Almansa – Burkholderia cenocepacia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in dual-species models: Insights into population distribution, antibiotic susceptibility, and virulence
11:00 – 11:35	Coffee break
11:35 – 11:55	Alumni session: Alejandro Torres-Sánchez · EMBL Barcelona
11:55 – 12:30	Evrim Acar Ataman · Simula (Coupled) Tensor Factorizations – as a tool to develop knowledge-guided data-driven methods for extracting insights from complex data
12:30 – 13:15	Session on Translation
13:15 – 14:30	Lunch break
14:30 – 15:25	Flash presentations. Session 2 Marina Placci – Nanomechanical traits for Rare Diseases: spotlight on Gaucher and Fabry diseases Thomas Wilson – Engineering epithelial cell shape and mechanics to create a new generation of biohybrid devices Juan Francisco Abenza Martínez – The mechanical control of the mammalian circadian clock Beatriz Cantero Nieto – High-throughput biomechanical characterization of macrophage polarization through atomic force microscopy Kristin Fichna – Nanomotor-Assisted intravesical chemotherapy for bladder tumor reduction and recurrence prevention Marco Basile – Modulating Blood-brain barrier low-density lipoprotein receptor-related proteins (LRP) receptors using multivalent drugs Tomás Quiroga – Deep indel mutagenesis of the ALS protein SOD1 to comprehensively map the impact of mutations on protein abundance and dimer formation Tiziana Russo – A LEGO® like approach to i-combisomes origami Claudia Camarero – Disrupting protein aggregation as a novel strategy against malaria: mechanistic insights into YAT2150 Carles Prado Morales – Breaching the human skin barrier with degradable enzymatic nanobots Mehdi Torabi Goodarzi – VCSEL technology integration into plasmonic biosensors for miniaturized, low cost and portable systems
15:25 – 16:00	Yuval Ebenstein · Tel Aviv University Selected ICREA Professor 2025 From the Lab to the Clinic: A toolbox for epigenetic analysis of DNA
16:00 – 16:10	Marc Riu · PhD Committee
16:10 – 16:20	Laasya Dhandapani · Postdoc Committee
16:20 – 16:30	Awards and closing ceremony My Green Lab Certification Awards PhD Certificate of Excellence and Award Best Flash Talk

Day 2 – October 17

10:00 – 12:30

Poster Session

REGISTRATION

At this year’s Symposium the poster sessions will be electronic – No need to print or to stand around your poster for hours.

With the innovative e-poster format the posters will be displayed on plasma screens and everyone will be assigned a time slot to present it in front of the interested audience.

Registration for the symposium is closed. For further information, please contact: ibeccommunications@ibecbarcelona.eu

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The IBEC Symposium -October 16th- The Poster session -October 17th-

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PREVIOUS EDITIONS

17th IBEC Symposium · 2024 Bioengineering for Emergent and Advanced Therapies

IBEC’s 17th Annual Symposium focused on Bioengineering for Emergent and Advanced Therapies, one of IBEC’s core application areas. Held on 22 October at the AXA Auditorium, the event brought together around 300 participants, including both local and international researchers, in a multidisciplinary environment designed to promote knowledge exchange and networking. The Symposium provided a platform for members of IBEC and external institutions to present their latest projects and foster collaboration. The afternoon prior, 21 October, featured a dedicated poster session at Citilab, reinforcing the symposium’s commitment to open, accessible science.

Opening and Welcome

The event began with a welcome by Gal·la Vinyes and Janet van der Graaf, researchers from IBEC’s Nanobioengineering and Integrative Cell and Tissue Dynamics groups, who acted as Masters of Ceremony.

Representatives from IBEC’s founding institutions also delivered opening remarks, including:

Laia Arnal, Director General for Knowledge Transfer and Society, Government of Catalonia
Jordi Llorca, Vice-Rector for Research, UPC Joan Guàrdia, Rector, University of Barcelona
Josep Samitier, Director, IBEC Josep Samitier opened the scientific programme with an overview of IBEC’s annual achievements and future strategy.

Scientific Presentations

The Symposium featured presentations by leading international researchers in biotechnology for new and advanced therapies:

Valentina Basoli (University of Basel, Switzerland) showcased the use of 3D printing for bone and cartilage regeneration and highlighted the role of biosensors in monitoring cellular behavior.

Twan Lammers (RWTH Aachen University, Germany) discussed strategies to enhance the clinical translation of nanomedicine for cancer, including image-guided drug delivery and the use of biomarkers.
Veronica Hortigüela, an IBEC alumna and pharmaceutical industry professional, shared her personal journey from academia to industry.
Tae-Eun Park (National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, South Korea) presented a microphysiological system mimicking the blood-brain barrier to support targeted drug delivery.

Additionally, Pere Roca-Cusachs, Deputy Director of IBEC’s Intramural Scientific Programme, introduced the Institute’s Thematic Networks, designed to enhance collaboration between IBEC research groups.

Recognition and Awards

The Symposium also served to celebrate IBEC’s recent Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation—awarded for the third consecutive time.

Present for the occasion was Núria Montserrat, former IBEC director and current Catalan Minister for Research and Universities, who quoted Severo Ochoa: “Science is always worth doing because sooner or later the discoveries will have an application.”

Awards and recognitions included:

Doctoral Excellence Certificates:

Celia Ximenes and Marina Martínez (Biomaterials for Regenerative Therapies)
Shubham Tanwar (Nanoscale Bioelectrical Characterisation)
Meritxell Serra (Smart nano-bio-devices) – Winner of the IBEC Doctoral Prize for her thesis on nanobots for cancer therapy

Best Poster Award: Pau Guillamat (Integrative Cell and Tissue Dynamics group) for “Guidance of cellular nematics into self-shaping active surfaces”

Best Dissemination Award (secondary school outreach activity): David Bartolomé Català (Biomimetic Systems for Cell Engineering group)

Best Quick Presentation Award: Karolina Zimkoswka (Molecular and Cellular Neurobiotechnology group) for her 5-minute talk on: “Monitoring neuronal activity in human cortical organoids with FTLD-tau” The Quick Presentation format featured 20 brief talks across four key themes: cell engineering, mechanobiology, ICT for health, and nanomedicine.

Engaging the Community

In addition to the scientific programme, a special outreach activity for secondary school students was organised. Twenty IBEC researchers pre-presented their posters in an adapted, student-friendly format. The students then voted for their favourite, helping to bridge the gap between research and public understanding.