Around 300 cancer researchers from around the world are meeting this week in Barcelona at the international conference “Towards Personalized Cancer Medicine,” held at CosmoCaixa from May 18 to 21. Various experts, many of whom are considered to be leaders in the field, will present their work and recent findings with the common objective of discussing everything related to the individualized treatment of cancer. The congress, which is divided into six thematic units, was launched yesterday with the presentation of a series of papers on biology and cancer susceptibility.

Every year since 2000, the TV3 Marathon Foundation holds an annual symposium to publicize the results and advances in cancer research financed by the funds raised five years earlier. Yesterday in Barcelona’s CosmoCaixa museum, the 11th edition of this symposium took place and the progress of the 31 cancer research projects that received 7.7 million euros of donations from altruistic citizens through the Marathon in 2004 were presented to the public. All participants in the conference agreed on the quality of the 31 research papers in terms of results that have been accruing during that time as well as the consolidation of some lines of research and new doors that have opened thanks to the gesture of those who gave money in 2004.

Invited to socialize in a series of lectures on ecology at the Casa Elizalde of Barcelona, Albert Cuchi, professor of architectural constructions of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), stated last 16th of March that the well understood sustainability begins within oneself and before our more immediate responsibilities. As a sample, he explained the experience of energy management of the School of Barcelona (ETSAB) and invited to do the same in every house.

Yesterday the third Conference of Scientific Catalan Journals organized by the Institute of Catalan Studies (IEC) closed, which has been held with the intention of supporting publishers to offer the best quality and achieve maximum publicity for their publications. In this third meeting focused on electronic publishing of scientific journals and in projects and open access initiatives. We analyzed the challenge of the universal spread of the cloud of the Internet as a space accessible to all, both publishers and users, from anywhere and at any time.