Coinciding with the commemoration of World Breast Cancer Day, the Viladecans Against Cancer Association held yesterday, November 19, in the afternoon, the opening ceremony of its new fundraising campaign for research. With the auditorium of the Pablo Picasso Athenaeum full, the Association kicked off its new activities accompanied by the city’s health councilor, Mrs. María Gato, and Drs. Gabriel Capellà, director of IDIBELL and head of the hereditary cancer group, and Ángel Raya, coordinator of the Regenerative Medicine program and head of the IDIBELL stem cell potency group. In the event also attended by the president of the Association, Mrs. Emi Cano.
Drs. Capellá and Raya were in charge of the inaugural talk, in which they presented the research project that, after passing the selection process, will receive the donation from the entity. During their presentation, the two researchers explained how they will generate a new experimental model for the study of cancer predisposition, a project based on personalized medicine, and the use of stem cells to model diseases. After the talk, both researchers joined in reading the manifesto for World Breast Cancer Day, prepared by the Association.
The Viladecans Against Cancer Association has collaborated with IDIBELL since 2016. Year after year, all the fundraising activities that they have carried out have raised funds for various IDIBELL cancer research projects, selected by the members of the collective. As a result of the 2020 health crisis, the Association decided to reconvert, its objective and join IDIBELL’s fundraising campaign for COVID-19 research. To do this, volunteers from the collective made masks, painted by hand, which they sold over the country. The initiative was a success and the entity gave IDIBELL a donation of 25,000 euros.
The Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) is a biomedical research center created in 2004. It is participated by the Bellvitge University Hospital and the Viladecans Hospital of the Catalan Institute of Health, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, the University of Barcelona and the City Council of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.
IDIBELL is a member of the Campus of International Excellence of the University of Barcelona HUBc and is part of the CERCA institution of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In 2009 it became one of the first five Spanish research centers accredited as a health research institute by the Carlos III Health Institute. In addition, it is part of the “HR Excellence in Research” program of the European Union and is a member of EATRIS and REGIC. Since 2018, IDIBELL has been an Accredited Center of the AECC Scientific Foundation (FCAECC).