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This afternoon the vice-president of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Autonomous Government of Catalonia), Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira, has named Joan Massagué, adjunct director of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and director of the Cancer Biology and Genetics Programme at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), Ambassador of the BioRegion of Catalonia. Massagué has been awarded this recognition during the BioRegion Forum held in Barcelona today. The director of IRB Barcelona, Joan J. Guinovart, received the plaque on behalf of Massagué, who expressed his gratitude through a recorded message.
In the presentation of the Forum, the president of the Executive Committee of Biocat, Manel Balcells, stated that the Catalan BioRegion has grown as a sector, has consolidated as a cluster and has gained international projection. “The last point is, without a doubt, a channel of growth. To strengthen it, and because there are trajectories that have promoted it and that deserve public recognition, today we will award, for the first time, recognition of the title of Ambassador of the BioRegion of Catalonia.”
The vice-president also presented an award to Màrius Rubiralta, Secretary of State for Universities of the Ministry of Education in recognition of his trajectory and his role as a key figure in setting up the BioRegion. Màrius Rubiralta (Born in Manresa, 1952) holds a PhD in Chemical Sciences and is a senior professor of Organic Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Barcelona (UB). During his career, Màrius Rubiralta has served as director of the Dept. of Pharmacology and Therapeutic Chemistry, vice-president of the Health Sciences Division, vice-rector of research at the UB, member of IRB Barcelona, director of the Barcelona Science Park and rector of the UB. In April 2008 he was appointed Secretary of State for Universities, which formed part of the Ministry of Science and Innovation. In May 2009 he took up his present post at the Ministry of Education.
More information at:
www.bioregio.cat
About IRB Barcelona
The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) pursues a society free of disease. To this end, it conducts multidisciplinary research of excellence to cure cancer and other diseases linked to ageing. It establishes technology transfer agreements with the pharmaceutical industry and major hospitals to bring research results closer to society, and organises a range of science outreach activities to engage the public in an open dialogue. IRB Barcelona is an international centre that hosts 400 researchers and more than 30 nationalities. Recognised as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence since 2011, IRB Barcelona is a CERCA centre and member of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).
