Live Research Fair: from photoactive drugs to apps to improve the quality of rivers

How do photoactive drugs work? What process does a water molecule undergo to get hydrogen and use it as a clean source of energy? Can we contribute to research on rivers and their preservation with our phones? These experiments and other science approaches can be carried out with the researches that take part in the 16th edition of the Live Research Fair, which takes place from April 11 to 14 in CosmoCaixa Barcelona.

The new edition of this fair is organized by the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) and Obra Social “la Caixa”, and has the support of the Barcelona City Council and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT). The UB is once more collaborating with the new edition of this fair, which will gather a total of eleven research groups in Catalonia to bring research at everyone’s reach, enable dialogue between the visitors and the researchers and promote vocations among youngsters.

Optopharmacology: drugs activated by light to treat Parkinson’s disease

Optopharmacology is an emerging discipline in pharmacology which is based on the use of light to control the activity of drugs. Within the frame of this fair, visitors can see how photoactive drugs work. This is one of the most important progresses in pharmacotherapy. By applying light on a photosensitive drug, its action process can be controlled in detail and some restrictions can be deleted within the field of traditional pharmacology (slow and imprecise distribution of the drug, difficulties to adjust the dose, etc.).

In the fair, visitors can learn about this technology and make an approach with light from a photosensitive molecule with the team led by the lecturer Francisco Ciruela, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Barcelona, the Institute of Neurosciences of the UB (UBNeuro) and the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), which created the first photoactive drug to treat pain in animals.