Geneticists David Bueno and Gemma Marfany claim need for scientific dissemination

Gemma Marfany and David Bueno.
Gemma Marfany and David Bueno.
Institutional
(03/04/2019)

David Bueno and Gemma Marfany claimed there is a need for dissemination, yesterday at the university during the ceremony in which they were awarded ex aequo the 6th Award of the DoctorsŹ¼ Senate and Board of Trustees to the best scientific and humanities dissemination activities. The ceremony was presided by the rector of the UB, Joan Elias, with the attendance of the president of the Board of Trustees, Joan Corominas, and the vice-president of the DoctorsŹ¼ Senate, Xavier M. TriadĆ³.

 

 

Gemma Marfany and David Bueno.
Gemma Marfany and David Bueno.
Institutional
03/04/2019

David Bueno and Gemma Marfany claimed there is a need for dissemination, yesterday at the university during the ceremony in which they were awarded ex aequo the 6th Award of the DoctorsŹ¼ Senate and Board of Trustees to the best scientific and humanities dissemination activities. The ceremony was presided by the rector of the UB, Joan Elias, with the attendance of the president of the Board of Trustees, Joan Corominas, and the vice-president of the DoctorsŹ¼ Senate, Xavier M. TriadĆ³.

 

 

ā€œWe live in a scientifically illiterate societyā€, warned Bueno, who then explained this lack of knowledge with the fact that science is all around, ranging from the medicines we take up to the processes to create the clothes we wear. The lecturer of the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics noted dissemination is important: ā€œIf we want a participative democracy we have to have knowledge elements in the scientific fields tooā€. In the disseminating task, scientists are challenged to use a different language than the one they often use while keeping a scientific rigour.

Gemma Marfany noted she is the first women to receive this award and advocated the researchersŹ¼ dissemination task to be distinguished. She noted that the University of Barcelona should become ā€œa source of truthful and tested informationā€ for citizens. The researcher talked about the need to disseminate the scientific task because it is a way to ā€œspread knowledge that can help Ź»touchŹ¼ many brainsā€. Gemma Marfany, also lecturer at the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics, referred to the importance of genetics as ā€œdecisive in the future, and knowing what it is about, empowers usā€, before the award ceremony.

David Bueno is a lecturer at the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics of the UB. His career has been mainly developed in Barcelona and Oxford. He carries out an important science dissemination and socialization task through articles, books and in the media. For instance, he collaborates in the newspapers Ara and El Punt Avui, as well as in RĆ dio 4 and TV3. He published seventeen dissemination books, a novel to bring biology closer to youngsters and about 500 journalistic articles. He has also collaborated in encyclopaedic works, such as Gran EnciclopĆØdia Catalana and HistĆ²ria Natural dels PaĆÆsos Catalans, and was the scientific director of the Atles dels Ecosistemes dels PaĆÆsos Catalans, from Grup EnciclopĆØdia Catalana. He is the director and editor of the book collection on scientific dissemination CatĆ lisi, by Editions and Publications of the University of Barcelona, an initiative aiming to show, in a communicative but rigorous way, a wide range of themes on current science.   

David Bueno is the co-author of sixty scientific articles and has participated in more than fifteen research projects. His main research lines are composition, function and homeostatic control of embryonal cerebrospinal fluid in the development of the central nervous system of vertebrates, and the application of neuroscience in the improvement of educational systems (neuroeducation).

Gemma Marfany is also a lecturer at the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics of the UB. She published several books on scientific dissemination about forensic DNA and ageing genetics, and took part in television and radio programs, and many interviews for newspapers. She has a weekly section in the online journal El Nacional, in which she publishes dissemination articles on scientific advances with a great media impact. She makes contributions to the journal MĆØtode and gives conferences in schools on research, she participates in cineforums and promotes other dissemination activities.

The scientific and academic career of Gemma Marfany has been carried out in Barcelona, Edinburgh and Oxford. She is now leading a research group of the UB on human molecular genetics on genes that cause hereditary blindness and is the head of the U718 Unit at the Rare Diseases Biomedical Research Center (CIBERER). She is also member of the Institute of Biomedicine of the UB (IBUB), of the Bioethics and Law Observatory and the Bioethics Commission of the UB. She has more than 85 publications, has supervised eleven doctoral theses and many masterŹ¼s and bachelorŹ¼s final degree projects. In 2018, she co-founded a spin-off on the genetic diagnostic of genetic eye diseases, DBGen.