UB hosts a new edition of the Live Research Fair
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From 8 to 10 April, the Aula Capella of the Historic Building hosts the 12th Live Research Fair, an initiative organised by the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) and supported by the University of Barcelona (UB). The main objective of the Fair is to show some research projects carried out at different Barcelonaʼs centres in order to bring society closer to research and foster young peopleʼs interest in scientific vocations.
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From 8 to 10 April, the Aula Capella of the Historic Building hosts the 12th Live Research Fair, an initiative organised by the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) and supported by the University of Barcelona (UB). The main objective of the Fair is to show some research projects carried out at different Barcelonaʼs centres in order to bring society closer to research and foster young peopleʼs interest in scientific vocations.
This year, nine research groups from different centres in Barcelona have moved one part of their labs to the Historic Building of UB and invite visitors to participate in their experiments.
Dr Enric I. Canela, vice-rector for Science Policy of UB, visits the Fair during its opening, which takes place today, 8 April, at 1 p.m. He is accompanied by Jordi Quintana, director of Business Development and Innovation at PCB, and Ignasi López Verdeguer, deputy director of the Science and Environment Department of la Caixa Foundation.
This year, visitors will discover very interesting projects. One of these projects is “Chemistry and diversity in Antarctica. Actiquim project” that studies marine natural products in Antarctic marine ecosystems in order to evaluate their pharmacological potential; it is part of a scientific project led by Professor Conxita Àvila, from the Department of Animal Biology of UB and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio). Another example is “Gaia: our galaxy in a petabyte”, focused on the emblematic mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) that aims at building a 3D map of the Milky Way; the UB group led by Jordi Torra, from the Department of Astronomy and Meteorology, participates in the mission and received the 2013 Barcelona City Award. Another proposal is the project “How do we study cancer” conducted by the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and PCB; it describes the study of the signals that modulate cell proliferation, differentiation and survival. The project “Cells exert a force!”, developed by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and PCB, is also presented; it enables to study the force exerted by cells during individual and collective migration.
For further information, please visit the website of the Live Research Fair