The IRBLleida and the Joan Oró Foundation start a collaboration to promote biomedical research and the figure of the Lleida scientist

The Lleida Biomedical Research Institute Dr. Foundation Pifarré (IRBLleida) and the Joan Oró Foundation have signed a collaboration agreement to promote biomedical research and the figure of the Lleida scientist Joan Oró Florensa. With the start of this collaboration between the two entities are planned different activities organized jointly that will culminate in the commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Joan Oró in 2023. In addition, the director of the IRBLleida, Diego Arango, will be part of the board of the Joan Oró Foundation.

Joan Oró Florensa was born on October 26, 1923 in La Bordeta, Lleida. He graduated in Chemical Sciences from the University of Barcelona in 1947 and in 1952 emigrated to the United States where he received his doctorate in biochemistry from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in 1956. In 1955 he entered the University of Houston, and in 1963 he was appointed professor.

One of his most important contributions was in 1959, when he succeeded in synthesizing adenine, a component of nucleic acids, molecules that transmit biological inheritance from hydrocyanic acid and ammonia in an aqueous solution. From 1963 he collaborated in several NASA space research projects, such as the Apollo project for the analysis of rocks and other samples of material from the Moon, and the Viking program for the development of 'an instrument for the molecular analysis of the atmosphere and matter of the surface of the planet Mars.

He returned to Catalonia in 1980 to collaborate on new energy development plans and the study of alternative energy sources. He was a CiU deputy for Lleida in the Parliament of Catalonia (1980-1981) and an adviser on scientific issues to the President of the Generalitat. The conditions the country offered him did not allow him to do quality research and he returned to Houston, until retirement, in 1994.

The agreement was signed by the director of the IRBLleida, Diego Arango, and the president of the Joan Oró Foundation, Francesc Oró, at the IRBLleida installations.