Nearly 200 students visit the Can Ruti Campus at the 30th Science Week

The Can Ruti Campus has opened its doors to nearly 200 Baccalaureate and Vocational Training students from the Badalonès, La Riera, Eugeni d'Ors, Joan Maragall and Pere Vergés institutes, who have had the opportunity to learn about the biomedical research carried out on the campus and the joint work between its research centres.

The Open House: get to know the Can Ruti Campus up close activity is part of the 30th edition of Science Week, an initiative promoted by the Government of Catalonia and the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation (FCRI) to promote scientific knowledge and its connection with society. The conference was organised by the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) and the Badalona Educational Service, with the collaboration of the different research institutions on campus, including IrsiCaixa.

The meeting began in the auditorium of the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital with an opening speech by the scientific director of the IGTP and group leader at IrsiCaixa, Julia García Prado. In her speech, García Prado underlined "the importance of biomedical research and cooperation between institutions to advance scientific knowledge efficiently". After the presentation, several researchers from the campus gave informative talks to share their work and experience with the students.

Visits and conversations with the research community

In groups, the students have subsequently been distributed among the different centers of the campus to live the scientific experience first-hand. At IrsiCaixa, for example, students have been able  to visit the level 2 and 3 biosafety laboratories, spaces where studies are carried out on viruses such as HIV or SARS-CoV-2, and have discovered how work is being done to develop new preventive and therapeutic strategies.

During the visit, IrsiCaixa researcher Dàlia Raïch Regué shared her professional career with the students, explaining how her interest in immunology began and how teamwork and scientific curiosity have led her to the research she is carrying out today.

The Open House has served not only to bring biomedical research closer to young people, but also to show the potential of the Can Ruti Campus as a collaborative scientific ecosystem, where centres from different fields share objectives and resources to advance science at the service of society.