Professor Joan Ferré, director of the University Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine
Joan Ferré Manzanero, Professor of Genetics, has been nominated director of the University Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine (BioTecMed) of the Universitat de València. The institute was set up last August, after spending eight years' operating as an Interdisciplinary Research Structure (ERI), in which Joan Ferré worked as a coordinator since its creation. Ferré was elected director of the new institute on 26 November during the BioTecMed Council meeting.
1 de december de 2020
BioTecMed is a research institute of the Universitat de València, in the field of Molecular Biology applied to Biotechnology and Biomedicine, which has two fundamental objectives. On the one hand, the scientific excellence, which it tries to achieve by boosting and promoting research on basic and applied Molecular Biologyat the Universitat de València, and by encouraging therefore the interaction between related groups of proven scientific quality by external committees. The other main objective is transferability, that is, to promote technological transfer activities by establishing interactions with companies, especially with those located at the Science Park and the Business Incubator of the Universitat de València, in the areas of Biotechnology and Biomedicine.
The research groups of which it is made up are organised in five units: Biology and Plant Metabolism; Proteins in Biotechnology; Biomedicine with Model Yeast; Microorganisms Biotechnology in Agrifood; and Cell and Molecular Biology in Biomedicine.
BioTecMed, from ERI to Institute
The creation of the BioTecMed Institute - which was published last 14th August on the Official Journal of the Valencian Country - has meant the consolidation of an idea that was conceived in October 2007. Throughout the two following years, professors of the Faculty of Biological Sciences Isabel Fariñas, Pedro Carrasco, José Enrique Pérez Ortín and Joan Ferréwere working on the materialization of this idea. Finally, the Interdisciplinary Research Structure for Biotechnology and Biomedicine (the ERI was the previous step to become an institute) was created on the 27th October 2010.
Although the BioTecMed ERI was made up of only four groups at first, it immediately incorporated new groups overthe next five years through three competitive open calls. The Institute, which does not have a physical headquarters yet,is currently made up of 18 research groups, with 181 members, 46 of whom are PDI (Teaching and Research Staff), distributed between two faculties (Biological Sciences and Pharmacy) and five departments (Genetics; Biology and Molecular Biology; Cell Biology, Functional Biology and Physical Anthropology; Microbiology and Ecology; and Pharmacology).