Author Archives: Jordi Villà i Freixa

Participació en la conferència sobre ‘cloud’ i ciència, organitzada per Mind the Byte

Posted by 13 de June de 2013

Mind the Byte ha organitzat la primera Scientific Cloud Anual Conference (SciCloud) a Barcelona. La conferència SciCloud, que es farà anualment, reunirà experts de diferents àrees de serveis al núvol i la ciència per descobrir i intercanviar idees i avenços en aquest camp.

L’ús de tècniques computacionals és clau per optimitzar i accelerar els projectes d’R+D+I, especialment, el desenvolupament de fàrmacs. Sovint, però, suposa una forta inversió i manteniment que no són assumibles per a pimes i grups de recerca. El núvol com a infraestructura i el SaaS (Software as a Service) com a solució de programari de pagament per ús ajuden a racionalitzar aquestes tècniques computacionals a les necessitats de cada moment sense haver de comprar servidors ni infraestructura TI.

La sessió inaugural va anar a càrrec de la Dra. Montserrat Vendrell, directora general de Biocat, i el Dr. Jesús Purroy, director Científic del Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB). També hi han participat com a ponents el Dr. Jordi Villà-Freixa, director de l’Escola Politècnica de la Universitat de Vic; Hakan Gurel, Solution architect d’Amazon Web Services; el Dr. Alfons Nonell-Canals, director general de Mind the Byte, i Oscar Huertas, director de Tecnologia de SOM Biotech.

Més informació a la web de Biocat.

New model for CFTR

Posted by 5 de July de 2012

The CBBL has completed part of the work of a three years long project on translational bioinformatics in cystic fibrosis (Activa). Our main role in the project was the determination of a model structure for CFTR, the chloride channel whose mutations are in the basis of the disease, as well as being a target for acute watery diarrhea drugs.

The new model, built in collaboration with Nir Ben-Tal’s lab at Tel Aviv University, proposes an open conformation of the channel, oposite to previous models, paving the way for the development of new drugs for both activation and blocking of the channel.

VHIR Seminar: “Improvements in computer simulations in biomedicine and how they are going on-line”

Posted by 23 de May de 2011

Jordi Villà-Freixa has been invited by Luís Agulló to give a seminar at the Vall d’Hebrón Research Institute in Barcelona on our research in the lab.


Abstract

Molecular simulations and biochemical kinetics modelling are among the most computing demanding problems in biomedicine. In this talk I will introduce several improvements our group has been developing in the last years, and how they have been applied to a variety of questions proposed by our fellow experimentalists. However, an increasing demand for simple and multiplatform bioinformatics and simulations methods to tackle a variety of problems in biomedicine exists. Thus, the natural move of a research group to make its software widely spread is to create web portals and web services that habilitate others to use its tools in an easy way. We will show the concept of Activ8 as an extremely simple to use and absolutely expandable platform for building computational protocols on-line. Examples of its use will range from research to training.

YOUTUBE

Debat sobre la medicina del futur /XTVL)

Posted by 13 de October de 2010

Jordi Villà-Freixa participa al debat sobre la medicina del futur a la Xarxa de Televisions Locals (XTVL), en una taula rodona moderada pel periodista Jordi Sacristán, que va comptar també amb Joan X. Comella, director del Vall d’Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR), Albert Jovell, director de la Fundació Josep Laporte, Jordi Villà i Freixa investigador en Biomedicina Informàtica de la UPF, i Karla Islas, periodista de Diario Médico.

Jordi Villà-Freixa and Ferran Sanz granted with the 2009 Social Council awards of University Pompeu Fabra.

Posted by 22 de September de 2009

Jordi Villà-Freixa, head of Computational Biochemistry and Biophysics laboratory of GRIB and Ferran Sanz, Director of GRIB, have been granted with the 2009 Master Teaching Quality Award and the 2009 Knowledge Transfer Award respectively.

The Master Teaching Quality Award distinguishes the work of Dr. Villà-Freixa in the creation and development of the Master in Bioinformatics of University Pompeu Fabra.

The Knowledge Transfer Award distinguishes the contribution of Dr. Sanz to the development of new strategies in pharmaceutical research, as well as the promotion of public-private partnerships in the field.

They will receive these awards during the opening ceremony of the academic course 2009-2010 on September, 29th at UPF.