Future Tools for Biomedical Research. In Vitro, in Silico and in Vivo Disease Modeling

The increasing costs of biomedical research and drug discovery and the continually rising numbers of compound failures provoke an urgent need for novel tools for basic research and preclinical testing of drugs. The cross-breeding of nanotechnologies, life and computational sciences is harnessing enabling technologies for drug discovery, development, toxicity testing and disease modeling. These advances can move in vitro cell and tissue cultures beyond the current stages, which poorly reflect patient physiology, and create “in vivo human-like” platforms that allow cheaper and efficient drug and toxicity assays. At the same time, important efforts are being made to create improved animal and computational models to better mimic human physiology in health and disease.

Under this frame, the meeting, coorganized by B·Debate and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalunya (IBEC), is presented as an opportunity to debate with experts and professionals of the field to review experiences and best practices and to identify and address barriers in the  development and adoption of advanced methods for disease modeling, with a potential to revolutionize preclinical research in particular, and the validation and commercialization of new therapies and diagnostics at large.

Scientific Committee: Dr. Josep Samitier (IBEC); Dr. Roger Guimerà (URV/ICREA); Dr. Fàtima Bosch (UAB); Dr. Ángel Raya (CMRB/ICREA/IBEC); Dr. Miquel Borràs (UB) and Dr. Xavier Trepat (IBEC/ICREA/UB).