This Tuesday, January 24, the “Viladecans Against Cancer” Coordinating Association donated €25,000 to IDIBELL. The event was attended by representatives of the collaborating associations, Maria Gato, president of the Association, Carles Ruiz, mayor of Viladecans, and Dr. Gabriel Capellá, director of IDIBELL and head of the hereditary cancer research group, and Dr. Ángel Raya, coordinator of the Regenerative Medicine program and head of IDIBELL’s stem cell potency group.
The donation, the result of the solidarity campaigns organized by the Association throughout 2022, will be used to finance the generation of a new experimental model for the study of predisposition to cancer, a project based on personalized medicine, and the use of stem cells to modeling diseases.
During the event, which took place at the Ateneo de Entidades Pablo Picasso in Viladecans, the research project that will motivate the Association’s 2023 campaign was also presented. Promoted by the Viladecans Hospital, a center affiliated with IDIBELL, and presented to the audience by Dra. Yolanda Fortuño, a doctor at the Hospital and researcher at the Institute, the project aims to advance the diagnosis and early treatment of skin cancer.
The Asociación Coordinadora Viladecans Contra el Cáncer, formed by civil society entities and fostered by volunteering, began to collaborate with IDIBELL in 2016, collecting funds for research against cancer. To date, it has contributed a total of €128,000 to biomedical research.
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).