A Walk Through Year 2021

I2SYSBIO leads three projects to obtain a therapy against COVID
The researcher Ron Geller (I2SYSBIO) leads three COVID projects in the field of therapies related to antivirals, antibodies and immunomodulatory molecules. These three initiatives, which have a total budget of 600,000 euros (230,000 for the I2SysBio group), are part of the eight research projects investigating the coronavirus led by I2SysBio, which have received support from the Generalitat and the CSIC. CRUE-Santander, and in which other institutions also participate. Research attempts to better understand immunity to this virus by examining neutralizing antibodies and identifying new means to block the virus for use as therapy.

Rafael Sanjuán granted the ERC Advanced grant
Rafael Sanjuán leads a project on virus threats of wildlife that has received two and a half million euros from the European Research Council (ERC) in the Advanced Grants modality. These are the largest grants awarded by the main European research body.

I2SYSBIO supports fair regulation of CRISPR use in agriculture
I2SysBio is a founding member of EU-SAGE, a network created in 2018 representing scientists from 134 European scientific institutes and societies that provides information on genome editing and promotes the development of European and EU member state policies that enable the use of this technology for sustainable agriculture and food production.

The course will involve researchers from different CSIC centers such as Centre for Biological Research (CIB), National Centre of Biotechnology (CNB) and the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio). The MISB aims to study the basic principles of life –and its emergence from inert components– as well as the design of tools that enable innovative solutions to problems related to the environment or health. The mission of MISB –the first postgraduate studies in synthetic biology in Spain– is to prepare the next generation of synthetic biologists equipped with new ways of exploring living systems: engineering to understand and design biological complexity.

Aras de los Olmos will be the first Spanish municipality to be supplied only with renewable energy, thanks to the forthcoming construction of a biogas plant with optimized bacteria. The initiative is part of the MICRO4BIOGAS project, funded with European funds and coordinated by the University of Valencia.

An I2Sysbio study wins an IG Nobel for unusual research
The team led by Manuel Porcar, a researcher at the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology
(I2SysBio,UV-CSIC) has received an IG Nobel Prize for unusual research for their work on the bacterial
load contained in chewing gum stuck on the ground for weeks and the evolution of it, in five different
countries. The article was signed in October 2020 in Scientific Reports, signed by Leila Satara, Alba
Guillén, Ángela Vidal-Verdú and Manuel Porcar himself.

The University of Valencia recognises Darwin Biosprospecting Excellence, S.L. as a spin-off company
The recognition of Darwin as a spin-off of the University of Valencia and the participation of the UV in the company strengthen the collaboration model between the two entities, regulated through the Support Agreement and recognition as a spin-off.The company Darwin Bioprospectin Excellence, S.L., founded in 2016, was promoted by researchers Manuel Porcar Miralles and Juli Peretó Magraner, currently attached to the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio) and by Mercedes Pamblanco Rodríguez, Teaching and Research Staff of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the UV.

Sixty secondary school students become virus 'hunters' at the Casa de la Ciència
The headquarters of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Valencia hosts a workshop of I2SysBio where students of 3rd and 4th ESO have searched for phages, viruses that act against multi-resistant bacteria.

The Transcriptional Orquestration of Metabolism Lab at I2SysBio led by J. Tomás Matus forms part of the multidisciplinary project ‘Good Vibes’ that will be funded with a Human Frontiers Science Program Award, and which will focus on how plants interact with their pollinators via a new communication channel: vibroacustic signals.

The Royal Academy of Engineering of Spain appoints Ana Conesa (I2SysBio) full member
Ana Conesa, an international researcher in computational biology and bioinformatics, takes office as full academician of the Royal Academy of Engineering of Spain(RAING), under the presidency of Queen Letizia of Spain.