Arechavala-Gomeza Lab

Dr. Arechavala-Gomeza took part in the Summer Course organised by the University of the Basque Country last 23^rd-24^th of June titled “Las Enfermedades Raras: un reto global para el sistema sanitaria”, where she could advocate for collaboration and investment in basic scientific research in the development of new therapies for rare diseases.

It was a great opportunity to discuss the current state of the art with a very wide representation of stakeholders in rare diseases and credit should be given to the organisers, Roberto Fernández-Torrón and Adolfo Lopez de Munain, from BioDonostia.

We have generated an open access version of our recent Lancet Neurology publication, as the original version is behind a paywall. You may access our version at the publications section of this page.

There is also a very interesting podcast associated to this publication, that you may access here:

If you finished your residence training recently (2014, 2015 or 2016), you may be able to apply with us to the”Becas BBK/BioCruces” (check last year’s call here: http://becas.bbk.es/cs/Satellite/becasbbk/es/nuestras_becas/becas_de_investigacion ).

They cover a year’s worth of salary (80%) and they are compatible with other short term contracts, so you may still be on call or take short term contracts at the hospital.

If you are interested, contact us.

We are looking for candidates to apply for funding together. A copy of the ad, in spanish, is below. If you are interested, contact us.

Buscamos candidatos para optar a becas predoctorales de concurso público y realizar una tesis doctoral en el grupo de enfermedades neuromusculares del instituto de investigación sanitaria BioCruces.

El grupo de Enfermedades Neuromusculares centra su interés en la evaluación de nuevos compuestos terapéuticos para estas enfermedades, en particular la distrofia muscular de Duchenne. Actualmente está realizando proyectos para evaluar oligonucleótidos antisentido y técnicas de edición génica CRISPR/Cas. Para más información sobre el grupo, consultar: www.arechavala-lab.com.

• Se requiere:

Licenciatura o grado en ciencias de la salud.

Expediente académico superior a 2.5 (escala 1-4) o superior a 8 en escala 1-10.

Estar cursando/haber cursado un Máster Universitario Oficial que le garantice el acceso a un programa de Doctorado en el curso 2016/2017.

Excelentes habilidades comunicativas y organizativas.

Manejo de programas informáticos (Excel, Word, Access, etc).

Idiomas: inglés hablado y escrito (nivel muy alto).

Disponibilidad para viajar.

Capacidad para trabajar independientemente así como en equipo.

• Se valora:

Conocimiento y experiencia en técnicas de Biología Molecular: extracción y purificación de DNA, RNA y proteínas, transformación y transfección, PCR.

Experiencia en cultivo celular.

Experiencia en PCR  cuantitativo.

Experiencia en manejo de muestras biológicas.

Experiencia en técnicas de histología: procesamiento de tejidos, fijación e inclusión, tinciones histológicas básicas.

Experiencia en técnicas de inmunohistoquímica e inmunofluorescencia.

Experiencia en el uso de vectores virales.

Conocimiento del manejo de programas estadísticos

Idiomas: euskera hablado y escrito.

Contacto: virginia.arechavalagomeza@osakidetza.eus

Finally, a paper that originanted at the EMA DMD stakeholder meeting last year was published today in Lancet Neurology. Cooperation amongst stakeholders is vital, and you can see how deeply we believe in this: this is a picture of some of the authors of this paper.

Clinicians, researchers, regulators and patients met in London last 26th of May to discuss how to best find and validate outcome measures meaningful for patients and acceptable to regulators. It was a great opportunity to discuss the latest advances on this issue.

1. Lock many scientists in a room
2. Give them food and coffee and LOTS OF POST-ITS
3. FOCUS
4. Outline ready to go! (Now we only need to fill in the gaps… watch this space in the upcoming months).

Last month we were visited by some high school students taking part in the “Gioconda Salud” initiative. They visited several of Cruces University Hospital’s departments, including ours at BioCruces. We told them about the uses of diagnostic tissue leftovers in research and send them home with a mission… spread the word, sign informed consents and help research!

This year the rare disease day is extra-rare and we have team up with other researchers at BioCruces Health Research Institute to campaign for FEDER (Federación Española de Enfermedades Raras).

BioCruces Rare Researchers…

Recently, we hosted at BioCruces two back to back COST workshops (one on systemic delivery and the second on CNS delivery of antisense). 45 researchers from 11 different European countries (and a few extra nationalities) met up to discuss their latest results on the subject and there were plenty of opportunities for consolidated and early career scientist to network. It was a pleasure to finally greet our colleagues at home and are looking forward to a new visit.

Attendants to the first workshop, on systemic delivery of antisense oligonucleotides.

Attendants to the second workshop on antisense delivery to the CNS.