Àlex Perera, PhD

Alexandre Perera i Lluna received the BS in physics, the BS degree in electrical engineering, and the PhD degree in physics from the University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, in 1996, 2001, and 2003, respectively. He was with Texas A&M University from 2003 to 2005 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate.

Researcher at the B2SLab, which belongs to the Research Center for Biomedical Engineering (CREB) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Polytechnic University of Catalonia, UPC), in the sunny city of Barcelona. At the Lab they mix Bioinformatics and Bioengineering, mainly towards cardiovascular research. Their main focus, however, is applied signal processing, machine learning and statistical pattern recognition. Experience in solving problems in data integration and data fusion, metabolomics, high throughput enrichment, Bioengineering and others.

Àlex teaches at UPC, at the Master in Biomedical Engineering,where he teaches two subjects: Introduction to Bioinformatics and Data Mining for Biomedical Databases.  He also teach at the Master’s degree in Automatic Control and Robotics, where he teaches some real time systems and scientific python.

Since October 2019 he has been appointed as head of the Research Center for Biomedical Engineering at UPC (CREB UPC Centre de Recerca en Enginyeria Biomèdica).

Cristina Canal, PhD

Cristina Canal Barnils is Associate professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), within the Biomaterials, Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering Group.

Before joining UPC, she did different research stages at pre and postdoctoral level in different national and international research centres. She has participated and lead a number of research projects, as well as technology transfer projects in the areas of Textile materials, Biomaterials and Cold Plasmas. Her research has led to above 60 publications, and several invited conferences. Her research has been recognized with different awards, including the L’Oreal-Unesco fellowship “For Young Women in Science” (2012) and the “2018 Early Career Award in Plasma Medicine“.

Her interests are focused in cold plasmas for biomedical applications, particularly: i. Surface modification of biomaterials to control parameters such as adhesion or biological behaviour; ii. Control of drug release from biomaterials; and iii. Therapeutical appications of cold plasmas, for instance, in bone cancers.

She is currently ERC APACHE project Starting Grant leader in a project in the field of atmospheric pressure plasma therapy, her main axis of research being currently focused in the atmospheric pressure plasma therapy of bone cancer treatment in combination with biomaterials.

Josep Maria Font, PhD

Josep Maria Font Llagunes is Associate Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona. He is also the Director of the Biomechanical Engineering Lab (BIOMEC) at CREB and Co-founder of the spin-off ABLE Human Motion. Currently, he is Associate Director of Research and Technology Transfer at the Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering (ETSEIB), having served as Associate Director of Postgraduate Studies during the period 2013-2017.

Josep Maria obtained the Master’s Degrees in Industrial Engineering (minor in Mechanical Engineering) and Biomedical Engineering from UPC, and received his PhD Degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Girona. Then, he was postdoctoral fellow at the Applied Dynamics Group of the Centre for Intelligent Machines, McGill University (Canada).

Josep Maria founded the BIOMEC research lab in 2009 and, since then, has led several competitive projects and industrial contracts in the areas of rehabilitation robotics, biomechanics of human movement, and multibody system dynamics. So far, he has published 32 articles in high-impact journals, more than 100 conference papers, 3 book chapters, and has supervised 4 doctoral theses. He is Editorial Board member of the journal Multibody System Dynamics. Josep Maria currently serves as coordinator of the Spanish Network in Biomechanics Research, Vice-President of the Spanish Chapter of the European Society of Biomechanics (ESB), and Vice-Chair of the Technical Committee for Multibody Dynamics of IFToMM.

Josep Maria has been awarded with the Agustín de Betancourt y Molina Medal by the Royal Academy of Engineering (2017), the OpenSim/NCSRR Outstanding Researcher Award (2017), and the Leonardo Grant by the BBVA Foundation (2018).

Manel González, PhD–MBA

Dr. Manel González-Piñero is the head of KTT/ innovation management at the Research Centre for Biomedical Engineering of the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), the coordinator of the Catalonia Health Tech Network (47 research groups) and co-founder of the Catalonia Healh Tech Cluster (leading the health tech companies). He is also Adjunct professor of Innovation and Cultural Management and member of the Research Group of Digital contents and Culture of the University of Barcelona (UB) School of Economics. 

He obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and in English Studies –receiving the Extraordinary Award- (UB). Later, he completed a MBA and a PhD in Economics (UB) developing a new strategy of innovation through the cross-fertilization of knowledge and technologies. He was a visiting researcher at the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences where he studied the Scandinavian ecosystem of video games in depth.

He worked in the Business Development departments of the University of Technology Sydney and the BRI National Research Council Canada (Montreal). His research and professional interests are focused on the innovation strategies, innovation management, corporate culture change and entrepreneurship, mainly in the fields of the health technologies and cultural industries. 

Currently, he teaches the subject of Business and Innovation at the Master’s degree of Biomedical Engineering and the subject of Strategic Design of cultural projects at the Master’s degree of Cultural Management, both at the UB. 

Antonio Galicia, MSc

Antonio Galicia Balboa works towards the Knowledge and Technology Transfer carrying out Promotion and Management tasks as well as the drafting and processing of accreditations and aids requested to different organisms. Currently, Antonio is dedicated to the Promotion and Management of the Health Tech Network (Xartec Salut).

Antonio got two Bachelor’s in Engineering Degrees (Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering) at the University of Navarra School of Engineering (Tecnun), where he was awarded with the Diploma of Entrepreneurship and completed a Managerial Skills Program. Later on, Antonio obtained the Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Barcelona (UB) & Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC).