It is important that, from a young age, we have the opportunity to get to know the scientific world up close, and what better way than to do it from within. For that reason, throughout the year, the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) opens its doors to offer many different activities, aimed at a variety of audiences.
“Sea of plastic”, first position in the XIV PRBB Prize
Last Friday, May 3, 2019, the awards of the XIV PRBB Prize were given to the best Research Projects in the field of Health and Life Sciencesdone by high school students from all over Catalonia. In this edition, 288 students participated with 266 projects and they made it quite difficult to the evaluators to take a decision.
The 6 finalists presented, on Friday, a scientific poster about their work. They had to defend it in front of a jury, composed of researchers from the PRBB: Mar Carrió and Oriol Gallego, both from the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), and Carlos Ruiz, from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal).
The event ended with the award ceremony led by Jordi Camí, director of the PRBB, Joaquim Gea, dean of the UPF, and Mar Carrió, also from the UPF, in represention of the jury. The first prize was awarded to the research project “Sea of plastic, study of the impact of plastics in the Catalan coast“, by Míriam Longás Bosch and Guillem Cuadrada Massanet, both students at the Jesuïtes Gràcia High School, Kostka School (Barcelona). Up to five prizes and two special mentions were also given.
Fifth edition of the BioJunior Day
On Friday, May 3, the fifth edition of the BioJunior Day took place as well. This event is organized by the PRBB centers and is aimed at 4th year of ESO and Baccalaureat students.
A total of 234 students and teachers from 9 high schools enjoyed a day full of activities at the Park facilities. First of all, the participants attended one of the two activities organized in the PRBB Auditorium.
The students of the first turn participated in a round table about the scientific career, moderated by Maruxa Martínez-Campos, scientific editor of the Communications Department at the PRBB. The speakers at the table were:
- Clàudia Fontserè, PhD student at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE).
- Estefania Mancini, postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG).
- Judit Marin, postdoctoral researcher at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) and doctor at the Hospital del Mar.
- Guillermo Martínez, PhD student at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).
On the other hand, the students of the second turn attended a scientific talk Hackeando la comunicación bacteriana, y otras cosas que necesitas que te comuniquen sobre la carrera científica (pero todavía no lo sabes), given by Carlos Toscano, researcher at the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences (DCEXS-UPF). Check out the video of the talk here (in Spanish).
When the students left the Auditorium, several guided visits were planned through many different spaces of the building (laboratories, scientific-technical services…). They also attended, on the one hand, an informative session organized by Barcelona Activa about the professions of the future and, on the other hand, an activity run by science communicators of “La Ciència Al Teu Món” and the IBE.
You can check below a video summary and see many pictures of the day in our Flickr account.
